Before The Worst
by teehee01360
Summary: Because Sasuke and Naruto were inseparable. They were best friends. They were a couple. They were perfect for each other. Two halves of a circle. And for years, they and everyone else thought the idea of Sasuke and Naruto would never end. They would be together through and through. These are memories of Sasuke and Naruto before everything became wrong. SasuNaru. AU.
1. Juice Box

**A/N: **I know what you're thinking. I should be writing the next chapter to "Fast Car" (which I kind of am. Hehe). I've come to a decision that I needed to release a bit more stuff if I want FC to be more visible in the fanbase (I've been suggested in a review from FC that I could release short oneshots. Hi reviewer Sora! Thanks for responding to my call for advise!). And what better way to do that than to semi-start my year-long idea for a story! I've mentioned this in my profile. This is the accompaniment ficlet to a story I've been cooking up. This will be paired with a second ficlet with a different perspective and setting (but that'll come at a later date). Both ficlets (despite being... well... ficlets) will have an ultimate end and will lead to the main story.

Naruto will be female in this story. This decision will be explained in due time. It's just more dramatic this way. I love yaoi, that's a given, but in my opinion, Sasuke and Naruto's relationship is more than just yaoi to me now. It's the idea of them (homosexual or not) together that makes it all worthwhile. So please bear with me on this one.

**EDIT**: I made a boo-boo with the ages and miscalculated. I changed the kids' ages, guys. Sorry about that!

Rating will change in the future. :)

**DISCLAIMER: **Proper citations should be noted. The materials used for the making of this story are credited to their respective owners. Naruto by Masashi Kishimoto. This disclaimer applies to every chapter hereafter.

* * *

**BEFORE THE WORST**

**Juice Box**

The blond new kid was someone all the other kids avoided.

At an early age, children tended to be swayed by the littlest details. It was a well-known fact that children believed anything and everything. Tell them something and they'll believe you, no questions asked. Tell them otherwise, and they'll still believe you. So when these children overheard from their mommies and daddies that the new blond kid didn't have a mommy and daddy, they became curious. It was then revealed to these children that the new child's parents were both in heaven as a result of a bad man trying to mug the family. Rumours from these children's parents began to spread (because people didn't know how to mind their own God damn business) that the new kid was illegitimate, was physically abused, was emotionally demented, and so on. But all these words were far too big for children who were, at the very least, at the age of three to understand. Although one rumor did happen to stick to these innocent minds; the new kid was bad luck that's why the kid's mommy and daddy were in heaven.

Bad Luck.

Those two words, children understood completely.

It was because of those two words, that one would find the blond child sitting alone on a tree swing while all the other kids played with each other. Pre-school classes had just ended and everyone was out having fun.

Uchiha Sasuke sat playing on the sandbox with other two children from his class. He sipped on his juice box while he created castles and mountains and seas with the sand under his little body. He took his time shaping his little world because mommy had told him that morning that she would be late to pick him up from school. Daddy was also busy with work so he couldn't pick him up either. It was fine. Sasuke just had to be patient.

The shrill screams from the other children caused a pout to form on his adorably chubby cheeks. Why did the other kids have to be so noisy? Why couldn't they just sit still and silently play like what he was doing? Hmph.

The little Uchiha looked up to glare at the other children. If they didn't stop screaming soon, he would really get mad. As Sasuke lifted his head, he caught sight of the new kid sitting on the lone tree swing from way over the other side of the play ground. The kid wasn't really that hard to miss what with him having that bright spiky yellow hair. The new boy looked like the sun, Sasuke decided; but why did he look so sad? Ever since the new kid showed up, he would always sit there and stare unhappily at the other kids. Truthfully, anyone at this tender age wouldn't have any concepts of hate and ostracization. It was always a matter of why all the other kids didn't want to play with the new kid. Apparently, Sasuke hadn't heard. The new kid was bad luck.

Forgetting the reason why he had stopped playing for a brief moment, Sasuke returned his attention to his sand sculptures. It would seem that blond kid had taken away Sasuke's previous irritation at the other noisy children.

One by one, each child was taken away by either a mommy or a daddy; other kids were taken by both. Before long, Sasuke and the blond kid were left on the playground (and, of course, their teacher who was required to stay until after the last child had left). Sasuke looked up once more and saw that the kid was still there, sitting alone on the tree swing. Hn.

Sasuke stood up from the sand box and wiped the sand off his uniform shorts. He quickly treaded to his Pokemon backpack and placed the bag around his small back. After doing so, he silently approached the blond boy.

Once the blond child had noticed the raven-haired boy walking to him, he stared fearfully at the intruder. Would this ine be mean to him too? The blond flinched.

"Hey, why are you always alone?" Sasuke asked, causing another flinch to erupt from the blond boy.

The new kid lowered his head, and answered with a slight stutter. "T-t-they say I'm bad luck."

"You don't have any friends?" Sasuke furrowed his brows while he inquired the other. It was strange for someone not to have any friends. He himself had friends.

The smaller child quickly shook his head, lightly shaking his blond tufts of hair. "The other kids don't like me."

"Hn. The other kids are stupid." Sasuke straightened his back and looked off to the side. He tried to imitate the cool nonchalance of his older brother. His big brother, Itachi, in Sasuke's little eyes, was the coolest person in the world.

"You said a bad word!" The blond kid gasped. Sasuke could only pout at the reaction. The Uchiha child was expecting the new kid to awe at his attempt at coolness. That's what everyone (mostly, the girls) did.

"Hn. I can say a bad word if I want to." Move over, people. We had a badass over here.

"I'm telling!" The blond shouted. Saying 'stupid' was unforgivable! He had to tell their teacher that this black-haired kid had said a very bad word. "Mr. Sarutob—mmph!"

"No!" Sasuke quickly covered the blonds' little mouth. "Don't tell on me! I'll give you my juice box if you don't tell on me."

The new kid simply blinked his large blue eyes and nodded.

"You won't tell on me?"

Another quick nod of his blond head.

"Okay. I'm letting go now. Promise you won't shout for Mr. Sarutobi after I let go?"

Nod. Nod. Nod.

"Good." And Sasuke let go.

"Give me my juice box!" The other immediately demanded.

Sasuke groaned and put down his backpack to retrieve the promised juice box. Hmm. He had two juice boxes; one of apple, the other of cherry. He didn't like cherry-flavored juice... It was decided. The new kid would get the cherry juice.

"Here you go, new kid."

"Ew. Cherry?" The blond pouted, letting his eyes water ever-so-slightly. Sasuke could feel his little heart breaking at the expression.

"Fine. You can have my apple juice." Sasuke took back the cherry juice box and gave the apple one instead.

"Thank you!" The blond beamed. Sasuke blushed at the sight. The little Uchiha decided that he rather liked the new kid when he smiled. Plus, he wasn't as loud or as annoying as the other kids (oh, the dramatic irony!).

"My name is Sasuke. What's yours?"

After a quick sip of his juice, the new kid answered back. "My name's Naruto."

That was the beginning of a new, long-lasting friendship. Ever since that fateful day, both children were never separated from each other. This was what everyone thought, and this was what Sasuke and Naruto believed.

And for years, that belief, they thought, would be enough.


	2. Cooties

**A/N: **Hi! Olie here! I accidentally (I'm not joking. I wasn't planning it whatsoever) made 2 chapters. I initially made a second chapter and decided the time setting and characterization seemed off to me. So what I did was I made the second chapter the third chapter instead and created a new second chapter.

I'll post the third chapter within the next 24 hours. (After my shift maybe. :P)

On a random note, we moved our stuff out today. I just realized what a horrible feeling it was to lose all TV, phone, and internet connection at the same time. At first, my bro was like "Oh hey, we're moving the TV and the phone." So I thought, yeah, that's fine. I could live with that for a few days. Then he followed up "Internet is going down too." ... I died a little bit inside. Thankfully, he put up the internet again. He also kept the phone. TV isn't here though. Meh.

I work like crazy this week! :D Oh, great joy. -_-" I tried to put in as much as I could in "Fast Car"(Check out Fast Car! Shameless story plug by me) today as it was my last day off. I'm actually having a hard time with the latest chapter. :p Oh wellz. Such is zeh life.

Also, I should just say that I totally got the title for this story from a The Script song. (It seems I'm developing a habit of using song titles for stories). I just find that if there's a song with a story, it would be more relatable. And the title just went so perfectly with the concept of this story. Please go and listen to it! It will not disappoint. Oh! There's another song too but I'm not gonna share that yet. It'll spoil the fun!

Just to be clear:

Naruto is female. I'll write a chapter about that one soon.

Sasuke is 4 years old here (as well as in the previous chapter). I'm going to try and keep everyone's real birth date. So this chapter is around end of September .

***DISCLAIMER APPLIES* - Credits to Before The Worst by The Script is given. That song is definitely not mine.**

* * *

**BEFORE THE WORST**

**Cooties**

A purple, glittery envelope was shoved in front of Sasuke's baby face. He unamusedly pouted at the offending thing. Hn. The nerve of that piece of paper to bother him while he was eating his snack with Naruto.

"Sasuke! You're invited to my fourth birthday party!" Ino, a girl with short pale blonde hair, explained. Ino was one of the more popular girls in the class due to her confident personality.

Sasuke glared at the little girl, causing his cheeks to puff out ever-so-slightly. "I don't want it."

The evident disappointment showed in Ino's pretty face at the rejection; but with new-found determination, Ino forcefully placed the invitation in Sasuke's tiny hands. "Well, even so! You're still invited! There's gonna be a clown and a lot of balloons and flowers! I'll see you there, Sasuke!" And she skipped away.

Sasuke eyed the purple envelope with curiosity. Hn. The party could be fun. He'd have to ask his mommy if he could go.

"The envelope looks so pretty." Naruto commented for the first time since Ino's mild intrusion.

Then the realization sunk in. Ino didn't invite Naruto.

"Uhh. Yeah." Sasuke awkwardly answered. Hopefully, Naruto didn't piece together that only Sasuke was invited to Ino's party.

"Her party might be really fun!" Naruto exclaimed with great delight, but then that excitement vanished as quickly as it had appeared. Oh no. Naruto figured it out.

"She didn't invite me though." Naruto's little body drooped in sadness. Sasuke instantly went into panic mode. The little Uchiha never did like it when his best friend was sad.

"I bet it's going to be boring anyway." Sasuke tried to comfort his younger companion.

"Why do people think I'm bad luck? Is something wrong with me?"Naruto was near tears by now.

"No way! You're cool. Everyone else is just stup—" Sasuke blinked when little tan fingers caught his moving lips.

"Stop saying bad words!" Naruto reprimanded, letting go of Sasuke's pink lips. The hurt expression returned to Naruto's features. "Maybe the other kids are right. What if I really am bad luck?"

Sasuke's eye twitched in slight annoyance. "Hn. You really don't get it, do you? You're okay the way you are. Y'know, you should start being more confident about yourself. The sad puppy dog eyes don't work so much anymore." Sasuke didn't really mean much by his taunts but it would seem that Naruto had been affected by it. The blond child's lips started to quiver. It was obvious that Naruto was trying to hold back the tears but was failing miserably. Sasuke saw how the corners of the other's blue eyes had started to gather tears.

"Look, you gotta stop crying so much! You're my bestest best friend, but what if I'm not around to make you stop crying? So you gotta promise me to stop being a cry-baby." Sasuke had a point. He couldn't be around the blond all day, every day.

Sasuke was glad to see that the blond nodded his head in understanding. Naruto wiped the tears from his big blue eyes and puffed his little chest out. Naruto always listened to Sasuke.

"I'll try, Sasuke."

"Good." Sasuke grinned as he wrapped an arm around his best buddy.

"I'm still sad that Ino didn't invite me though." Naruto pouted.

With a small sigh, Sasuke made sure to make the blond feel better. "I'm not going." He said as he threw the letter in the air.

"Huh?" Naruto rapidly blinked his eyes as a show of confusion.

"Yeah. I'm not going. It's a girl's party anyway. Girls are pretty annoying." Sasuke stuck his tongue out to show his disgust. "Girls have cooties too. It's really gross. We can have our own party."

Sasuke turned to face his friend to see whether the other felt any better. To the little Uchiha's surprise, Naruto looked shockingly paler than he had a few minutes ago.

"Hn. Are you okay, Naruto?" Sasuke tilted his head to get a better view of his friend's alarmed face.

"S'N-n-nothing. I'm okay. Hehehe." The laugh was just a little too weird, too funny sounding. Naruto reinforced his voice and added a little more, well, confidence (as Sasuke suggested) to the tone. "Yeah. Who wants to go to an icky girl party anyway! We can have fun all by ourselves, right Sasuke? We'll play with toy cars, swords, and everything!"

Sasuke smiled, glad that Naruto was feeling better now. "Come on. Recess is almost over." The small Uchiha reached for Naruto's small hands and pulled the other back to the classroom. And as the two treaded away hand-in-hand, the purple glittery cootie-ridden envelope lay forgotten on the ground.


	3. Of Bullies, Dinosaurs, and Shurikens

**A/N: **Third chapter (which was supposed to be the second chapter but decided otherwise)!

Football = Soccer :D

We finally get to see a little bit of the Naruto we all know and love! None of that whimpering mess I wrote in the last 2 chapters.

***DISCLAIMER APPLIES***

* * *

**BEFORE THE WORST**

**Of Bullies, Dinosaurs, and Shurikens**

Sasuke, after being dropped off to school by his mommy, giddily skipped through the clean halls of his preschool. The excitement from his tiny from threatened to bubble over. He guessed he wouldn't be able to act cool today judging from his current disposition. He was just too excited!

Yesterday, Old Man Sarutobi announced that they would be having Show and Tell today. He asked everyone from the class to bring their favourite thing and to talk about why they thought it was interesting. A smile lit up on Sasuke's baby face. No one could possibly top what he had brought to class today.

Sasuke entered the room and quickly sat on his seat. From the little chatter here and there, Sasuke could tell his classmates were equally as thrilled as he was. He saw a few of his classmates even showing off their Show and Tell item before class even started. The little Uchiha fidgeted on his tiny desk. He really _really _couldn't wait!

The door to the classroom opened, and in came Mr. Sarutobi who was accompanied by Naruto. The two looked like they were having a genial conversation. The old teacher then gestured for the little blond child at his side to take his seat. Naruto nodded and, instantly looked for Sasuke (because Naruto always looked for Sasuke). Once Sasuke was found by his blond best friend, Naruto's face beamed and the blond rushed to the empty seat beside the little Uchiha.

"Good Morning, class." Mr. Sarutobi's face crinkled with warm delight.

"Good Morning, Mr. Sarutobi!" The class answered back in a multitude of teeny tiny voices.

"As you all know, today is Show and Tell. Did everyone bring their favourite thing with them?"The old man asked his students, trying to gauge the little munchkins' excitement level.

"Yes!"

Sarutobi Hiruzen chuckled. It would seem that his students' excitement level were way off the charts. "So let's start then!"

"Yeah!"

"Aburame Shino, you can go first."

llllllllllllllllllll

. . .

. . .

. . .

This was so boring!

Sasuke pouted, not afraid to show his grumpiness. All the other kids brought boring things! He should have known it would turn out this way when the first person, Shino, had a dead butterfly with him; but then Shino started to cry directly after he pulled out his Show and Tell for the class to see. Apparently, the butterfly was alive when the boy took it.

Everything else was just a big blur to Sasuke as each child presented their items to the class. He vaguely remembered a white puppy, though (and he only remembered solely because that was probably the most interesting Show and Tell so far).

"Thank you, Shikamaru for sharing your... like for clouds with us." Mr. Sarutobi sweatdropped at his peculiar student. Shikamaru didn't even bother to bring a Show and Tell item, arguing that clouds are everywhere so he needn't bring his favourite thing. Looking at his list, the teacher called for the next student. " Sasuke, you're up next."

Finally!

Sasuke jumped from his seat and ran to the front of the classroom, taking his backpack with him in the process. He opened his bag and brought out a funny-looking dinosaur stuffed toy and three rubber (but really well-made) shurikens.

"This is Corky. He's a Tyrannosaurus rex. And these are what you call shurikens. They help me fight the scary things that come out at night." He showed his objects with great pride.

One of his classmates raised her hand and immediately shot out a question. "A Tyraurus rex?"

While another student, this time a boy, said with uncertainty "Shurikens?"

Sasuke groaned at his two inept classmates. "Tyrannosaurus rex, better known as T-rex.. Tyrannosaurus means tyrant lizard, and rex means king. Shurikens are ninja stars."

Suddenly, an onslaught of sighs from the girls in his class erupted. The little Uchiha showed his displeasure. He didn't like it when the girls bugged him. He was sure that his show of intelligence (although, truthfully, he didn't know what tyrant meant) would have the girls swarming him after class.

"My brother gave me these things when he came home for Christmas break from his boarding school in another country." Sasuke gloated. "My big brother is the best big brother in the world! He's super smart, and he can do all sorts of things! He can run really fast and he's a good football player! When he visits, he teaches me a bunch of cool stuff!"

Mr. Sarutobi giggled at the little Uchiha who was going on and on about his older brother. It would seem that Sasuke wasn't really here to talk about his beloved toys, but was really here to boast about his older brother. That or the lad didn't really mean to segue to the topic of older brothers. Getting sidetracked was very common, especially with little children.

"So there you have it!" Sasuke ended with a smug grin. Corky and his three shurikens were really great toys. His classmates must be envious (the Uchiha tyke didn't even realize he spoke of his older brother much more than he spoke of his toys).

"Thank you, Sasuke. That was very interesting." Mr. Sarutobi patted the boy on his head before leading the child back to his desk.

"Next up is Naruto."

Naruto's countenance brightened and the child skipped to the front of the room. In the past year, Naruto had definitely bloomed into a spunkier individual and Sasuke was truly impressed with the change.

Sasuke blinked at the stuffed object in the blonds' hands. It was vermilion stuffed fox which was dulling in color and slightly ripping at the seams. It might have looked old and dirty to anyone else, but Sasuke and Mr. Sarutobi knew better. The toy was simply well-loved.

"This is Kurama. My mom gave him to me when I was still a baby." After the blonds' introduction, Sasuke noted the way Naruto hugged the plushy closer to his little chest.

"It's old." A little girl seated at the front sneered.

"Can you really still play with that? It looks broken." Another child added.

Sasuke glared at the two kids that disrupted Naruto's Show and Tell. A small whimper which caught Sasuke's attention was heard coming from the blond; but then Naruto crinkled his brows and straightened his stance.

"He's not that old! I just play with him a lot!" The blond five-year-old tried to defend his favourite doll. The girl who first interrupted Naruto's presentation simply harrumphed.

"Kurama is my favourite thing because he reminds me of my parents. That's why he's very special to me." Naruto smiled at his fox plushy. "Uhmm. That's all I have to say, I guess. Thank you." And the blond child silently returned to the seat beside Sasuke's.

"Thank You, Naruto. Kurama is very special indeed." Sarutobi fondly smiled at his student. "Ino, would you like to share next?"

Sasuke, not planning to listen to his classmates any longer, looked to Naruto and offered the other a small smile. "After class, we can go outside to play with Corky and Kurama." Sasuke whispered. Naruto agreed with an enthusiastic nod of his head.

The rest of the Show and Tell presentation was quickly forgotten by the two children as thoughts of the adventures Corky and Kurama filled their little heads.

llllllllllllllllllll

Sasuke pouted as he searched the playground for his little blond friend. Where was he? Mr. Sarutobi only spoke to Sasuke for a few minutes. The blond couldn't have possibly left yet.

"Naruto?" Sasuke called out as he searched inside bushes and behind trees.

"Stop it!"

Sasuke's ears perked at the distressed scream coming from behind the small playhouse. That voice was definitely Naruto's. The little Uchiha made a wild dash to where he thought he heard the voice had come from.

"Hahaha! Look at this ugly thing. It's so old!" A taller boy held Kurama above his head. If Sasuke remembered correctly, the boy's name was Arashi and was in the second grade. With Arashi was the girl from earlier who sneered at Kurama's aged appearance. Sasame was their classmate's name.

"Sasame! Tell your cousin to give Kurama back to me!" Naruto growled and screamed as he tried to reach for his beloved plushy. Sasame simply winked at Naruto and stuck her tongue out to taunt the blond.

"Give the doll back." Sasuke commanded. His boyish voice had three heads, all varying in emotion, turning to his direction; one of annoyance, one of excitement, and one of distress.

"And who're you, squirt?" Arashi glared at the kid who dared to fight back.

"Sasuke!" Sasame greeted as she blushed at the arrival of the little Uchiha.

"Sasuke, help me show these guys!" Naruto shouted as he continued to kick and squirm at the seven-year-old bully. The blonds' struggled fighting only seemed to infuriate Arashi even more.

"Get off of me, you baby!" The bully shouted as he pushed Naruto to the ground. Sasame couldn't help but laugh at little blond on the ground who was glaring daggers at her older cousin.

"Grow up! Only babies play with stuffed animals!" And as Arashi said this, he ripped poor Kurama's fuzzy head off from its body.

"No!" Naruto stood up to try and attack the nasty older boy, but then blur of black and white zoomed past the blonds' form. Suddenly, Sasuke was gripping Arashi's uniform, pulling the older boy's head down making it so that both children were eye-level with each other. The bully, although bigger and older than Sasuke, looked completely overpowered by the little Uchiha. Sasuke vaguely heard Sasame gasp out loud at his assault on Arashi.

Despite Arashi's apprehension, he attempted to intimidate Sasuke by barking out a "Why you little shrimp!", and tried to grapple with Sasuke's hold.

With strength he didn't know he had, Sasuke pounced on the bully, letting the latter fall back-first to the ground. Much to Arashi's great surprise, Sasuke was kneeled over his trounced body. The little Uchiha's left hand held the boy in place while the right was balled into a fist aimed to Arashi's head.

"Wait wait! I'm sorry! Please don't hurt me!" Arashi begged the little Uchiha.

"Hn. Too late for that." Sasuke raised his elbow higher to get more momentum for his impending punch.

"No! Stop! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Talk about being a baby. Arashi was openly crying by this point.

"...Hn." Feeling a teeny bit merciful, Sasuke let go of the grip on Arashi's uniform; but not before whispering a threat to Naruto's tormentor. "If you ever come near Naruto again... well. My big brother taught me how to throw ninja stars." Sasuke brought out one of his rubber ninja stars from his pocket to make a point. "Wouldn't want one of these to go right in between your eyes, right?"

Arashi whimpered and frantically nodded. With a smirk, Sasuke stood up, completely releasing Arashi from his baby Uchiha wrath.

"Come on, Sasame! These guys are crazy!" Arashi abruptly escaped, pulling his younger cousin along with him.

Sasuke returned his attention to Naruto. The blond sat on his heels, looking forlornly at his ripped plushy. Kurama, with his stuffing spilling out, appeared mangled.

"Kurama..." Naruto's voice quivered. Sasuke knew his friend wanted to bawl but couldn't. Naruto promised to stop being such a cry-baby, but Sasuke could let this one slide.

"Hey. You don't have to hold back. You can cry if you want to." Sasuke rubbed Naruto's back to offer the latter comfort.

Naruto shook his head. With a sigh, he then reached for Kurama's ripped pieces and cradled the stuffed animal.

Sasuke, wanting to wipe the sadness away from Naruto's face, opened his backpack and brought out Corky. "We can share Corky if you want. I'll let you borrow him." And then the most brilliant idea came to Sasuke. "My mommy can fix Kurama up for you. Until then, you can have Corky."

Naruto curiously glanced at Sasuke. "But you love Corky."

"Hn. I won't miss him too much. Just don't drool on him or something."

Naruto's eyes began to sparkle (Oh, that one had Sasuke panicking all over again), although, surprisingly, it sparkled not because of unshed tears but because of uncontained joy.

"Thanks, Sasuke." Naruto beamed up at the littlest Uchiha.

"Hn. Don't mention it." Sasuke looked to the side to hide his rapidly growing blush.

"So does Corky really help you fight the scary things that come out at night?"

"Duh! So you can sleep well tonight since Corky will be with you. Then, you have me in the daytime. I'll scare anything away for you." Sasuke, unaware of the implications of what he just said, admitted.

Naruto thought back to the Arashi situation just a few minutes ago and silently agreed with Sasuke. For the little blond, Sasuke would make all the bad things go away.


	4. Skirts Are Pants with Air Conditioning

**A/N:** A new character comes into the picture, everyone! This particular character doesn't have a last name so I made one up.

**SCHOOLING: **From where I came from, grade school consisted of 1st grade to the 6th grade. We didn't have junior high (then. But I think they just recently added that in). For this story, I'll be mixing and matching educational levels from my home country and the schooling system in Canada.

I'd just like to make clear that the "worst" won't be until the end (although, truthfully, the "worst" will only appear in the main story. So technically, the end of Before The Worst is only "worse". Haha! Shutting up now) So far, we're still in Sasuke and Naruto's childhood. Still a ways away. Until then, please enjoy all these little sweet oneshots... while you still can. Dun dun duuuuun. Bwahaha!

Please do leave a review!

Ha! That rhymed!

**FAST CAR ANNOUNCEMENT: **I'm truly very sorry for not having updated this story yet. I'm just having a very very difficult time writing the next chapter. And I don't really want to release something just for the sake of updating the story. Please be patient as I get myself out of my Fast Car funk (Don't worry though. I'm very much still writing it. Just not at the same speed and flow as I once had).

***DISCLAIMER APPLIES***

* * *

**BEFORE THE WORST**

**Skirts Are Pants with Air Conditioning for Boys**

First day of school would always be a nerve-wracking experience for anyone. It required you to meet new people, adjust to your new grade level, get to know new teachers, and so on. The first day of school, although frightful, would always be a momentous event, especially when one moved school levels. Transitioning to a new education level was truly a milestone. It signified that one has passed all his previous subjects and completed all the requirements.

Mikoto stood staring fondly at her youngest son who looked nonchalant in his new uniform. The six-year-old Uchiha was officially starting grade school today. Gone were the standard shorts and collared-tops for the little boys and girls from little Sasuke's preschool. Sasuke got to wear full black pants now and a white button down shirt under a navy blue sleeveless jumper. The school emblem, a spiral with a pointed lower left edge, was positioned proudly on the vest's left chest to signify that the alma mater must be kept close to the heart; so very unlike the preschool uniform, which had the emblem inconspicuously placed on the left-side collar. Despite his noncommittal look, he was feeling pretty smug about himself. He was a big boy now!

"Sasuke, why won't you smile, honey?" Mikoto asked as she noted the little pout on her son's face.

"Hn." Sasuke shrugged which had his mother giggling. Uchihas, no matter what the age, would always be an Uchiha.

"Why if it isn't Sasuke!" A voice exclaimed out of nowhere. The greeting alerted both mother and son causing both to turn their heads to acknowledge the newcomer. Sasuke immediately brightened up, not taking a half-second to recognize who the mystery person was.

"Hi Uncle Jiraiya." The little Uchiha greeted.

Jiraiya crouched down to Sasuke's level and ruffled the little boy's head. "Well, look at you! You look like such a big boy!" Sasuke preened at Jiraiya's flattering comment. The older gentleman gazed up and caught sight of Mikoto. The woman, although having a friendly smile on her face, looked slightly puzzled.

"Where are my manners? Hello madam. My name is Sennin Jiraiya. You must be Sasuke's mother. I can see where the boy gets his looks." Jiraiya wiggled his brows playfully at Mikoto.

"Oh, you flatter me, sir. My name is Mikoto. It is a pleasure to meet you. I'm sorry but I'm not familiar with your name. Which child is yours, sir?" Mikoto couldn't help but ask. None of Sasuke's classmates had Sennin as a last name. Maybe he was the child's grandfather from the mother's side?

"You need not call me sir, Mrs. Uchiha." Jiraiya gleefully explained.

"No need to be so formal! Call me Mikoto, Jiraiya." Mikoto never did like it when people treated her with such formality. Just because she was the wife of tycoon didn't mean she was an uptight lady.

"Phew! That's great! I couldn't think up fancy words any more." Jiraiya stage wiped his brow for effect. The gesture caused Mikoto to release an honest to goodness laugh.

"Uncle Jiraiya, where's Naruto?" The whole time during Jiraiya and Mikoto's exchange, Sasuke scanned the area in search for his best friend.

"Oh! Naruto is yours, Jiraiya?" Mikoto inquired with great surprise.

"Uh-huh. Although the blond rascal isn't mine per se. I'm his godfather." Jiraiya explained. Sennin Jiraiya happened to be the journalism mentor of Naruto's biological father, Namikaze Minato, in university. The two men were, to put it short and simple, like father and son. When Uzumaki Kushina, Naruto's mother, was confirmed pregnant, Minato could not think of anyone else to name as godfather for their child other than Jiraiya.

"Oh, I see. Nonetheless, Naruto is such a delightful child. You must be proud." Mikoto offered the older gentleman a soft smile. She had only met the blond a couple of times but in all those times, she found Naruto to be the sweetest thing.

"Yup. That kid's something." Jiraiya shoved both hands in his pocket, making him appear slack.

"Uncle Jiraiya!" The little Uchiha whined. He couldn't believe they had ignored him. Hmph. Sasuke furrowed his brows and frowned.

"Haha! Sorry about that, champ. The kiddo is over there, behind that big tree." Jiraiya pointed to the huge tree at the centre of the lawn. Sasuke directed his gaze to where the man had pointed. True enough, little blond spikes were poking out from behind the tree and a sparkly blue eye peeked shyly. Noticing the directed gaze of all three persons, the blond spikes suddenly retracted behind the tree.

"I told the kiddo to come greet you but that little brat won't go anywhere near here." Jiraiya clarified the situation to both Uchihas.

"Hmm. That's strange. Usually, he would go up to me and my son no problem. Is something wrong?" Mikoto worriedly glanced at the big tree that hid the little blond tyke. As if on cue, Sasuke left the presence of the adults and walked to his best friend.

"He?" Had Sasuke stayed a few more seconds with Jiraiya and his mother, he would have gotten some preparation from the old gentleman on what he was about to find out that morning.

"Naruto?" Just before Sasuke was about to round the tree to see Naruto, the latter screamed at the former.

"Stop! Don't come near me!"

Well, that was hurtful. Sasuke grimaced at the offending tone Naruto used at him. "Hn. You're not the boss of me!"

"Nooooo!"

But it was too late.

Sasuke went around the tree and there, Naruto stood...

He was wearing a skirt.

. . .

Uzumaki Naruto

A boy

A spiky haired blond blue-eyed little boy

Was wearing...

A skirt.

"What?" The extent of puzzlement on Sasuke's face was immeasurable. If the moment wasn't so embarrassing to the little blond, he (or she?) would have doubled-over in laughter at the contortion of Sasuke's facial expression.

"I told you not to come!" Naruto had on an adorably endearing pout on his (...her?) chubby face. The red of those cherub cheeks accented the whisker-like marks found therein.

"Why are you in a skirt?!" Sasuke screamed, absolutely baffled by the visual of Naruto, the very boyish Naruto, standing there in the school's girls' uniform. The little Uchiha scanned the blond from head to toe to reaffirm that what he was actually seeing was real. White button down top? Check. Navy blue sweater vest? Check. So far, so good. Same as the boys' uniform thus far; but then Sasuke looked below the other's waist-level. An ankle-length dark green plaid skirt...

Oh, for the love of Corky!

Naruto was a...

Naruto was a... a... a

"You're a girl?!"

The _blonde _winced. "Am not! I'm a boy!" Screamed the frazzled little _girl_, making _her _appear like a distraught pigeon.

"Then what's with the skirt?" Sasuke taunted, feeling particularly irritated that his best friend failed to say that he was actually a she. TWO YEARS! Who wouldn't get angry?

"This isn't a skirt!" Naruto blurted out.

"Oh yeah? Then what is it then?" The little Uchiha challenged. He couldn't wait for Naruto to explain that one.

"Uh... Uh... Uhmmm." Naruto bit her lips as she deeply concentrated.

"Well?" Sasuke probed the other.

"..."

"Well, Naruto?"

"...They're pants."

"..."

"..."

"Pants?" The question from the baby Uchiha was dripping with incredulity.

"Yes."

"..."

"Pants with air conditioning." The blonde explained, further digging a deeper hole for her grave.

"...Really." Sasuke arched an eyebrow.

"Yes?"

"Are you asking me or are you telling me?" The little raven-haired child crossed his arms.

"Telling you?" Cue in an uneasy laugh from Naruto.

"Was that really the best you could come up with?" The facepalm Sasuke did was really to be expected.

"...Yeah." The blonde sighed in defeat. Sasuke knew. She hoped that the other wouldn't find out she was a girl until, well, until forever.

"I'm your best friend. Why didn't you tell me?" Sasuke could only ask, because what else was there to ask?

"I thought you wouldn't be my friend any more if you found out." The worry on her little face became apparent. She began to pull the hem of her blouse in anxiety. Also, her lips began to swell because of her excessive gnawing.

"Why wouldn't I want to be your friend?" Sasuke was really surprised. Naruto was sincerely fretting over this issue.

"You don't like girls. All girls have cooties. You said so yourself! I thought you wouldn't want to play with me anymore if you knew." Naruto looked to the ground to hide her shame. Sasuke sighed as he slowly came to understand the blonde's reasoning. Truthfully, Naruto wasn't completely in the wrong. Sasuke had been bashing on girls even before the little Uchiha met Naruto.

With a groan, Sasuke suddenly felt responsible for the whole mishap. "I guess you're the only girl that doesn't have cooties." He mumbled as a reassurance.

Naruto looked up in bewilderment. Had Sasuke said what she though he just said? "Really?" A smile threatened to break out on her face.

"Yeah... And you're more like a boy than a girl so I guess you're cool." Sasuke smirked as he casually put his hands in his pockets.

"Yes!" Naruto jumped in rejoice. She was relieved that her and Sasuke's friendship was still intact.

Sasuke turned and faced the other direction. "But if I start getting sick, I'm blaming it on you and your cooties. I totally won't play with you any more if that happens" He teased and proceeded to walk away.

"Eh?! Sasuke!" Naruto's face scrunched up in worry. She then ran to catch up with her best friend. "You didn't mean that, right Sasuke? Right? Sasuke? Sasukeeee!"

Sasuke kept silent as he walked back to the two adults to agitate the girl even more. Heh. A girl for a best friend huh? Could be interesting. Honestly, he couldn't care any less. They'd been friends for two years (and running). It's not like anything would change between them just because Naruto was a girl and he was a boy, right?

Right?

Oh, the innocence of youth truly was something to be envious of.


	5. Meet My New Toy, Elle

**A/N: **Hiiii. I'm back! :D A new installation to BTW!

Once again, I'd like to promote my very first baby (**Fast Car**). We're about to reach that story's climax. :3 Go check it out. And please do leave a review if you could. Let's spread this story to all our friends. ;D

NOTE: From where I come from, we call our godfathers "Uncle" (this, I think, would be the closest English equivalent of the word. Anything closer would be calling them "Godfather" directly). So yeah. Just a little heads up. :)

This chapter is more of a filler ficlet than anything (is that even possible?).

***DISCLAIMER APPLIES***

* * *

**BEFORE THE WORST**

**Meet My New Toy, Elle**

"Urgh!" Sasuke stomped his foot in frustration. Why couldn't he get this? Itachi can do it so easily! "One more try. I know I can do it." He whispered to himself for motivation.

Bump.

Bump.

Bump.

Splat!

"ARGH!" The seven-year-old slumped and sat on the ground in defeat. The child glared at the football that was situated a few metres away. That stupid ball was laughing at him... He just knew it was. Dumb ball.

All of a sudden, Sasuke wasn't hatefully peering at his soccer ball, but rather he was eye-to-eye with something that was remarkably blue.

"Whatcha glaring at the ball for, Sas?" Naruto asked as she placed her face inches from Sasuke's boyish features. She then snickered at her best friend once she noticed that the little boy had crossed his eyes so he could try to see her better. Naruto served to annoy Sasuke more than he already was (because that's what best friends do, right?). The little Uchiha gave a side-pout and lightly pushed Naruto's short spiky blond hair downwards, subsequently, making the little girl's head a tool to help Sasuke stand up.

"Hey! What did you do that for?" The little girl growled as she rubbed her head to comfort herself. Sasuke shrugged and put his right hand in his shorts pocket. "You were too close. I don't want to see your ugly face up close." The little Uchiha raised his nose and peeked through one eye to see his best friend's reaction. Most would say that Sasuke was being just a little bit of a hypocrite considering that the small boy would snap at anyone who dared to insult Naruto in such a way. In all actuality, this was how the two rolled ever since Naruto came out of her shy little shell and became the spunky little girl she was presently. Sasuke, although admittedly being mean, was really glad that Naruto wouldn't start moping every time someone was being nasty to her. She would totally beat any one up if someone dared. Of course, she'd beat any one up except Sasuke.

The little girl's whiskered-cheeks reddened in both embarrassment and annoyance. Standing up, she attempted to make herself look tougher by squaring her shoulders. "Oh yeah! Well... Well... Well you're fighting with a ball!"

"Nice try." Sasuke fondly smirked. It would seem to him that Naruto needed to work on her comebacks next.

"Hey, so really. Why were you so angry at the ball?" Her previous discomfiture forgotten, she now asked Sasuke to answer her initial query.

The raven-haired lad shot another well aimed glare at the offending football. "It was being stubborn."

Naruto twitched her eye in acknowledgement. She managed to piece things together on her own. "Eh?! Don't tell me you're still trying to juggle that thing?" The little girl crossed her arms and looked to her best friend with a tinge of amusement on her features.

"Hn. What if I am?" Sasuke placed both his fists on his waist and snarled. Sadly, the snarl made him look as threatening as an angry kitten more than anything. The blonde sighed and made her way across the small space between Sasuke and the football. She picked the toy up and started to spin the item between her palms. "You've been trying to do it since Spring Break started. That was a week ago. You still can't do it?" Naruto raised one of her eyebrows at the ball. Surely juggling the play thing wasn't _that _hard.

"Oh yeah? Why don't you juggle it if you're so good, Elle?" Naruto squirmed at the nickname. Ever since Sasuke had found out she was a girl, the little boy would call her 'Elle' every so often to grate on her nerves. Before anyone asks why the little boy chose to call Naruto 'Elle', it was simply because Sasuke took French as a second language. The moment the young Uchiha found out that 'elle' pertained to the female gender; he had been calling Naruto 'Elle' to tease her. Oh, how Naruto hated it!

"Shush! I'll show you!" Naruto tossed the ball into the air and waited.

Okaaaaaay...

Now!

Once the ball was within range, Naruto shot out her knee and hit the ball with tremendous strength. Up, up, and away it went. Sasuke's jaw went slack as he watched his precious ball fly away to God knows where. It would be safe to say that ball was gone for good.

The seven-year-old Uchiha looked towards his friend to see Naruto covering her face in complete humiliation. "So..." He broke the silence, making Naruto grumble.

"So, the football..."

"Don't. Say. Anything. Sasuke." She ordered with a muffled voice.

The silence wagered on, producing such an awkwardness that was near palpable. Naruto kept her face hidden from view while Sasuke simply stared at the girl with incredulity. The whirr of a small breeze whooshing by filled in for the lack of noise from the two; although, if anything, it created the uncomfortable silence even more intolerable.

"Argh! What?!" Finally having enough, Naruto threw her arms up in the air and wailed.

"... I didn't say anything." Sasuke internally snickered. This boy really knew how to rile the other up without even trying.

"Well, you want to say something! Just spit it out!" If Naruto was bird, she would totally have her feathers extremely ruffled right now. For the young Uchiha, it was entertaining to imagine.

"That's some fine juggling you got there, Elle." He sniggered.

"... Shut up, Sasuke." Naruto's left eye twitched in irritation.

"What! You told me to spit it out! So I did." The humour in Sasuke's black irises was evident by the way he smiled at his best friend. Despite how much he taunted the poor girl of being, well, a girl, Naruto acted anything but. She was every bit of the boy she claimed to be a few years back.

The blonde, recognizing that she was at a loss, sighed."So what do we do now?"

"Beats me. You lost my only entertainment." Naruto whined at Sasuke's words.

. . .

This sucked.

Now, they were bored.

And was it just them or were there crickets chirping?

Well.

How incredibly stereotypical.

"Come on." And Sasuke was suddenly leaving. The unexpected order had Naruto jerking in surprise. "So what now?" She quirked her brows in confusion and followed the little boy's trail. Didn't Sasuke just say that she lost his only means of fun?

"You're going to make it up to me." Sasuke explained in that tiny boyish voice of his that had mothers cooing.

"How?" Naruto could only think of one way to make it up to the other; and that was to have Uncle Jiraiya buy Sasuke a new ball.

"I guess you're just gonna have to be my source of entertainment forever." To Sasuke, it was meant to relieve Naruto of the guilt of losing the ball; but to anyone else (to Naruto), the statement would have been viewed differently.

"Forever? You think we'll be friends for that long?" She asked because, to children, the concept of 'Forever' could be achievable.

"Well, we're just going to have to be friends for that long. You owe me." Sasuke looked back to Naruto and smiled. "So you gotta promise me that you'll stay with me forever. I'd be bored if you didn't."

The smile Naruto gave Sasuke was one filled with joy, causing her eyes to sparkle like gems under the sun's light. Sasuke and Naruto, forever. It had a nice ring to it.

"Yeah. I promise."


	6. A Footballer's Cheerleader

**A/N: **I wrote this fairly quickly. O.o I decided to take the night off today since I've been sick for the past three weeks now. -_-" Imagine that. Working six days a week, preparing for an upcoming show, and taking Karate class (we also had to move out of our previous home AND a family member came over to visit us for a week) To think I've been sick through all these times. How the hell did I do it?! So yeah. I took the night off and decided to write one more chapter for BTW.

**Note:** I know Tomba was ages ago but let's just pretend, for this story's sake, that it's a new thing. Hahaha! I don't know what video games little boys like to play nowadays.

***DISCLAIMER APPLIES***

* * *

**BEFORE THE WORST**

**A Footballer's Cheerleader**

"You're going somewhere this Christmas break?" Naruto whined as she watched Sasuke dribble a school property soccer ball. They found the object laying about as they were on their way to the school main gates so they could be fetched by their respective guardians. Well, Sasuke would be fetched by his respective guardian. Naruto, on the other hand, was tasked to go home alone as her godfather was finishing his deadlines. She didn't mind; Uncle Jiraiya was always prompt to fetch her from school. These were just one of the rare times he would ask her to go home by herself.

"Yup. We're visiting my grandfather from Mom's part of the family in the eastside." Sasuke explained as he tossed the football with his foot and proceeded to juggle the ball with his knees and chest at random intervals. Naruto watched in amazement. Sasuke got pretty good at ball handling since their last Spring break. Very good, actually.

"Can I try?" She intently stared at the ball that went up in the air, back down, only to have Sasuke bounce it up into the air once more. The young Uchiha briefly paused his football tricks to fix a pointed smirk at his best friend. "You sure? You won't let it go flying to outer space like last time, right?" Sasuke securely placed the ball between his hip and forearm.

A tick formed on Naruto's head as she cutely sneered at the young skilful footballer. "Don't make me do to you what I did to your football, Sasuke." She cracked her knuckles for added effect; although, Sasuke took the threat to stride and simply chuckled.

Sasuke tossed the soccer ball to Naruto's direction. "Go for it, Naruto." And for a few minutes, the eight-year-old blonde was able to have good control of the football. She caught the ball with her chest and let it bounce to the ground. Simple footwork here and there; and a couple of dribbling. Heh. Take that, Sasuke, she mentally boasted.

"Huh. Not bad." But Sasuke spoke too soon. As soon as he said his compliment, Naruto made an erroneous manoeuvre and accidentally stepped on the ball causing her to land flat on her face.

Sasuke could only sigh at the blonde's clumsiness as he bent down to pick up the ball that managed to roll back to his place. "Defeated by a ball. Just let me handle the football tricks next time, airhead, so no one gets hurt."

Naruto groaned to express her physical pain as she sat up. "Aw phooey! I don't even like football." She crossed her legs and pouted. "If you ask me, I'd like to be part of the Leaf's dance troupe." Sasuke's ears perked at what Naruto revealed about herself.

"You want to be part of Leaf Twist?" He asked, quite a bit shocked that Naruto would even utter the notion. She must be joking.

"Yeah! They're pretty cool! Especially yesterday at the school's Christmas showcase! Did you see what that guy did! He looked like a ninja with those moves!" Naruto pressed her palms together while letting her eyes glimmer as she fawned over the dance group.

The Leaf Twist was one of the Organizations in the High School Department that was acclaimed for their dancing prowess. It was a well-known fact that Konohagakure High's dance troupe was the best among the three cities within the metropolitan. If they weren't champions, they would always be in the runner-up places. Only, unbeknownst to Naruto, they weren't just a dance group...

"...You do know that the Leaf Twist is also Konoha's Cheer Squad, right?" And with a snap of a finger, Sasuke shattered Naruto's little bout of fantasizing.

"What?!" Suddenly, Naruto was by Sasuke's feet, clawing at his slacks. "They're... They're cheerleaders?! With the pompoms, and the sparkles, and the glitter, and the skirts, and the girliness?!" Naruto outwardly cringed at the visual of her dream team being so ... so ... perky.

Sasuke arched an eyebrow at the girl while pulling his pant leg out of Naruto's grasp. "I think so. I mean they're a real dance crew but I heard that everyone in the group had to cheer during school competitions at least once."

Naruto hugged her knees and burrowed within herself, completing the whole doom and gloom vibe. "How do you know all this?" She slightly hoped that Sasuke was just misinformed. Cheerleading was NOT her thing.

Sasuke shrugged and looked at the blonde with a sceptical expression. "I overheard the middle school cheer squad talking about it one time."

Naruto heaved a sigh as she slowly stood up. She bent over and brushed off the little particles of dirt that stuck to her skirt during her fit. "Meh. Who cares? One day I'll be a good enough dancer and join Leaf Twist. I'll worry about cheerleading later." After she deemed her skirt dirt-free, she straightened her stance and beamed at her best friend.

Sasuke squinted his eyes for a split-second as something seemed to blind him with its reflected light. The little boy looked for the source of the light; and in a matter of seconds, he found it. There, situated on the upper part of Naruto's chest, was a bluish-green gem that was about an inch in length.

"When'd you get that?" He immediately inquired as he pointed to the necklace.

"Hm? This?" Naruto lightly touched the gem. "Oh, I've always had it, but Uncle Jiraiya kept it for me for safe-keeping. He just recently let me wear it since he thought I was old enough to not lose it accidentally." The blonde fondly looked at his necklace with clear signs of affection in her blue eyes.

"Where'd you get it from?" Sasuke was suddenly feeling irrationally jealous of the attention Naruto was showering the object.

"It was my mom's. It's all I have left of her."And the affection in those blue orbs was replaced by a sombre sadness. Sasuke softened his gaze; he wasn't feeling that jealous of the necklace any more.

The little Uchiha cleared his throat to get the little girl's attention. "Hey, let's get to the gates. It's time we go home." He awkwardly stated while simultaneously scratching his cheek with a finger. Naruto directed her eyes to the other and nodded.

As they trod to the gates, Sasuke decided to strike up a conversation to liven up the mood. "So Leaf Twist, huh? You'll be running around with a frilly skirt then."

Naruto grimaced at the idea of a frilly skirt. There would probably be tank top there too to complete the look. Ew... "Yup. I just have to volunteer for a game once, right? And then I can do cool moves for the group the whole time." She answered but kept her head straight forward.

"That's cool, I guess. Make sure that that single game you cheer for would be for my football team's game." Sasuke spun the football with his finger. It was a well-known fact that Sasuke dreamt to be the captain of their school's football team.

Naruto looked to Sasuke with a warm air to her. "Well, duh! Who else is gonna cheer for you the right way? If I hear another 'Kyaaa! Sasuke!' from the other girls, I might just puke!"

"Yeah, yeah. But first, you have to work on your dancing first. You can't join a dance group if you can't dance."

"But – "

"The Chicken Dance does not count, Naruto."

Naruto slumped in woe. It was true. She wasn't the best dancer. How would she expect to be accepted in Leaf Twist if she couldn't dance?

"But I know you'll be an awesome dancer someday." Sasuke stopped walking since they had finally reached the waiting grounds beside the school main gate. The young Uchiha was dropping the soccer ball in his possession when a funny idea came into his head. "Then you can be my little personal cheerleader, Elle." The little Uchiha teased as he poked Naruto on her forehead.

"Hn. Yeah. Whatever." Naruto blushed, not noticing how she picked up Sasuke's bad habit of answering with a 'Hn'. She actually felt flattered that Sasuke thought she had what it takes to get in Twist.

"So I got the new Tomba game. You wanna come on over to my house and play?" Contrary to popular belief, Naruto had never been to Sasuke's home. Usually, they would just meet up at the local park or wherever else with their guardians to play; so the notion of being invited to Sasuke's home to play her much awaited video game brought a smile to her lips.

"You know I want to, Sasuke, but I promised Uncle Jiraiya to head straight home after school." Naruto regretfully informed her best friend. "Maybe after you come back from your grandpa's place."

"Yeah, okay." Sasuke frowned and looked to his side. As if on cue, one of the minor school gates opened and in came Sasuke's mother with her car. "Hey, you want ride with us so you don't have to walk all the way back to your house?"

"No thanks, Sasuke. I don't get to walk home alone so much. Goes to show how I'm such a big kid now!" She bragged to the other. It was cute how something so inconsequential to adults seemed like such a big deal for little kids.

"Fine. I'll see you after Christmas Break." Sasuke ruffled Naruto's blonde spikes and then ran off while waving back to the little girl.

"Yeah. See you, S'uke!" She responded while she tried to fix the mess Sasuke made with her hair (as if Sasuke could make more of a mess of her already disarrayed hair).

Naruto watched her friend run to the car which was parked a few metres away. Before she could turn to leave, she saw an older boy exit the vehicle. If Naruto had to guess, the boy would look about to be the age of thirteen. The excited scream that followed was from none other than Sasuke. From where she stood, she could see her best friend chattering to the older boy at an accelerated rate. The young teen smiled and poked Sasuke's forehead (much like how Sasuke did to her just a few moments back). Sasuke then entered the vehicle as he rubbed at his forehead with a pout on his face. The older boy followed suit but just as the young adolescent held the door, for the briefest of moments, the older child accidentally directed his gaze to Naruto's person. Figuring out that she had been caught watching, Naruto abruptly turned and ran to the school main gate. The older boy, with a softened expression, released a silent chuckle and proceeded to enter the car.

As Naruto speed walked home, she unconsciously played with the gem that hung on her necklace. "That big kid looked a lot like Sasuke." The blonde whispered her observation to herself. Sometimes, Naruto really was an airhead. She tenderly grasped her necklace and smiled. Hopefully, the break didn't drag on. She hated to admit that she'd miss Sasuke while he was gone.

"I guess while he's away, I could practice my dancing." Although she was motivated to try and do so during the break, she couldn't help but repeatedly chant a single wish in her head.

I hope Sasuke comes back soon.


	7. A Girl Can So Be The Husband!

**A/N: **This story is so fun to write!

I know it's been done numerous times but I couldn't help myself. I just had to do a oneshot about Sasuke and Naruto having a play-wedding. It's awfully cliché, but I just HAD to do it! Hahaha!

Cheese Rings: As the name suggests, they're cheesy cornmeal junk food that look like rings. They're like Cheetos ... but shaped like rings.

This oneshot is pretty short. It really was just an impulse thing I decided to do.

I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed in the previous chapters! I'm exceedingly grateful for your support! :) Seeing your reviews makes me feel very happy! Truly, it does. (hearts)

**Regarding story updates:** Chapter 11 of Fast Car is still a working progress, everyone. As most of you know, I'm in a bit of an FC funk and have been struggling to write the story for the past couple of weeks. Worry not. I will definitely not abandon it though (I'm just writing it really slowly. hehe). Please do be patient with me and I apologize for the delay. :( As of the moment, I'm also currently writing an extremely long oneshot as a means of taking a little break off the drama in FC. So yeahp. Let's get excited for that, guys! :D

***DISCLAIMER APPLIES***

* * *

**BEFORE THE WORST**

**A Girl Can So Be The Husband!**

Sasuke bumped his head on the ground as Naruto pounced on him in her sheer irritation. "Gosh darn it, Sasuke!"

"Let go of me, Naruto!" Sasuke pushed the blonde off to the side and rolled himself on top of her. "Ha! I win! I get to be the husband!"

Now, before any one panicked, there was actually a sound explanation as to why Sasuke was proclaiming himself a husband. Somehow, both eight-year-old children chanced upon a Comedy Romance type movie while browsing through Naruto's TV. The little girl paused her swift channel surfing because she had happened to think that the woman on the telly looked a little funny wearing a very long white dress. It was at this moment that both tykes heard the woman speak with a man about being together forever and whatnot. Since kids get the strangest ideas, Naruto decided to voice out how Sasuke and her should get married.

"That way we won't ever be separated! And we can stay up late playing video games until we're old and gross!" She had said determined to convince her best friend. Surprisingly, Sasuke went along with it no problem. In record time, the two kids had set up their "church" by building pillow forts and draping blankets all over the place. Sasuke had put Corky on top of the dining table to be the priest for the affair. Naruto had opened a bag of Cheese Rings and got two rings that fit their small fingers perfectly. When everything was set, the two of them nodded and positioned themselves in front of Fr. Corky.

. . . But there was one small problem.

Who would be the husband?

This would explain why the two of them were violently rolling around the living room area in an effort to overpower the other. Plainly speaking, no one wanted to be the wife.

"Naruto! You have to be the wife 'cause you're the girl!" Sasuke pushed Naruto's cheeks to try and get the little girl to surrender.

"No way! You should be the wife because... because... because I said so!" Naruto opened her mouth and attempted to bite Sasuke's hand that was pushing her face. Because Sasuke was, unfortunately, stronger than her, Naruto was not able to get her mouth close enough to Sasuke's hand so she could, subsequently, bite the little boy. Plan B was now set into motion.

"Time out! Time out! TIME OUUUUUT!" She screamed and successfully got Sasuke to stop pushing her poor face.

Sasuke stood up and offered a hand for Naruto to hold onto so she could get up. "So? What'd you call time out for?"Sasuke crossed his arms across his chest once Naruto was up and about.

"I have a better way to settle this." There was a wicked glint in Naruto's pretty blue eyes that arose great anxiety to the little Uchiha.

"What did you have in mind?" Sasuke arched an eyebrow and glanced at Naruto sceptically.

"I propose a round of Rock-Paper-Scissors!" Naruto pumped her fist in the air as if she had just announced the most brilliant idea the world had ever heard. Sasuke confidently smirked at the ecstatic little girl. "You're on, Elle." The little boy inwardly cackled. He would so win this!

Both children presented their closed fists at each other in preparation for the game that was to be commenced. The air felt electric as the tension rose exponentially in the average-sized living room. The sweat dripped down Naruto's forehead at the same time Sasuke gulped in apprehension. Both persons adorned furrowed brows as a show of deep concentration. The room was so silent that a dropped pin would have deafeningly echoed in the area.

"You ready?" Sasuke intensely inquired his best friend. Naruto nodded to signal that she was by all means ready to boogie. In perfect synchronisation, Sasuke and Naruto moved their closed fists in an up and down motion.

"Rock." Sasuke growled.

"Paper." Naruto rasped.

"Scissors!" The two of them yelled while simultaneously revealing their desired choice of attack.

A smirk appeared on a child's face in great triumph.

Rock beats Scissors.

llllllllllllllllllll

"I pronounce you husband and wife. You may now kiss the bride." Sasuke made a face at the horrible squeaky voice Naruto was doing. Was that really supposed to be her interpretation of Corky's voice? It was annoying!

Naruto stuck out a tongue at the idea of 'kiss the bride'. "I don't have to kiss you, right Sasuke?"

Sasuke glowered cutely at his 'husband'. The little Uchiha looked hilarious as he adorned a blanket tied around his torso. It was supposed to be a make-shift wedding dress; it looked pathetic and ridiculous. "I hate you so much right now, Naruto."

"Hehe! Love you too, S'uke!" Naruto, who was wearing an adorable red ribbon they found laying around as a bow tie, grinned to her 'wife'. "Look on the bright side! We're stuck to each other now."

Sasuke sighed but silently agreed with the blonde. At least they were stuck with each other, by hook or by crook. It was in this moment that Jiraiya chose to come through the front door. Immediately, he saw both children and instantly understood what was going on.

"Hold on, kids! Let me get my camera!"

... Sasuke was somewhat having of a bad day.

SNAP!

The Uzumaki – Uchiha wedding photo was now the highlight of Naruto's photo album.


	8. Capture The Flag Troubles

**A/N: **Hiyaaaaa! It's me. :3

This oneshot is a long one. Well, relatively longer than the others. It has two parts. Both parts have their own title though. Ahehe. So they're kind of pseudochapters in a way.

Capture The Flag = it's basically a game where you try to catch the other team's flag. It involves tagging and hiding. I'm not really good at explaining the game's mechanics since I have never played this game. If some of you still don't understand what the point of the game is, just search it on google. Lazy author is lazy. Hahaha!

Arrow Helicopter = it's a toy that you shoot high up into the air and it slowly falls back to the ground. It has pretty lights on it too.

I have a proposition! I need help thinking up themes for these oneshots and I decided to have you guys help me out! :D Yay! Reader participation! If you guys have something in mind, just send it in via review (I'm sort of having inclinations on challenging myself as a writer to spice things up.) To make it a little more fun for everyone, beside your suggestion, place a number from 1 – 20. I will be asking the first person I talk to at 6pm (my time) to give me the number I shall be choosing. Whoever is the first person who was lucky enough to place that number on his/her review, I will be doing that suggested theme. If not the exact number, the closest number up to keep things simple. :) Game will end three days from today. (I'll set it for Saturday at 6pm Western North American time. It's the same as the time zone in California. I don't know what they call that time zone. Ahehe)

This is going to be so much fun! (for me at least) I hope you all participate; I really do. Otherwise, this game would be extremely awkward if no one plays it. Hahaha! (Oh, speaking of the game... I just lost the game -_-" Crap.)

Example: I suggest a oneshot that has them fighting for the last piece of pork bun. 17

So if 17 happens to by the lucky number, I will be doing the pork bun theme. If no one chooses 17 within the next three days however, I will be doing the suggestion with the closest number up (18, 19 or 20).

**Guidelines:** As much as possible, please use your account if you have a suggestion. The moderation tool confuses me _

**Specific age:** The suggestion should cater to Sasuke and Naruto's age bracket. I'm looking at a theme that would work well with them at ages 9 – 12. I don't have anything going on for them at that age group. So no sexy time yet please. :3

I would really appreciate it if you guys can help me out. :) I can't think of anymore fluffiness! D: Until then, I'll be waiting for your suggestions since that age groups is coming up next after this particular chapter. -_-" Oh woe is the rapidly losing fluffy ideas author.

**ON A MORE THANKFUL NOTE:** Thank you to all those who have reviewed, followed, and favourited BTW! Your support brings me great happiness! :) I hope I can make the next chapters interesting for everyone!

Chapter not beta-read. Proofread it myself so it might still have mistakes here and there (the same goes for the previous and future chapters). Forgive the errors! D:

***DISCLAIMER APPLIES***

* * *

**BEFORE THE WORST**

**Capture The Flag Troubles**

**Part I**

It was a nice day at the park for two children; both of which were enjoying the beautiful summer weather. In the past few days, both kids had made a habit of going to their local park to just hang out together. Mikoto would usually be with Sasuke and Jiraiya with Naruto. But nope; not that time around. Jiraiya had offered to be the guardian for the kids that day as Mikoto was quite busy with her line of work. She managed a few of the Uchiha family's small businesses and it became fairly demanding if left unattended for prolonged periods. Fugaku... well. No one would ever expect the head of the Uchiha family to attend to such trivial matters. The man ran a huge company which specialized in the global distribution of merchandises. Since Mikoto and Fugaku were a no go with Sasuke and Naruto's play date, then all that was left was the watchful (not really) eyes of the little blonde's godfather.

Jiraiya sat on one of the available park benches that was situated near the play area. He swore to the gods that he really did try to watch the kids. He really _really _did! But after a few minutes of observing children throw sand and dirt at each other, Jiraiya decided it was more worthwhile to continue writing his next piece of literature.

Yup.

The old coot was a literary genius. Be it for journalism, creative writing, play writing, and so on, Jiraiya could execute his words flawlessly. As the guardian kept his head down to jot down his ideas on his notebook, the best friends continued with their little session of games. Surprisingly, they weren't just playing by themselves. Somehow, a huge lot of their classmates in school happened to be in the park that same day.

The children congregated amongst themselves just at the edge of the playground. They stood huddled in a circle, all looking quite grim. Clearly, they were discussing a very serious matter.

"So..." A little girl with unusual pink hair and a wide forehead muttered.

"So?" Ino nodded while tucking a few strands of stray hair behind her ear.

"What do you guys want to play?" The pinkette finally voiced out the million dollar question. A little boy with dishevelled brown hair raised a hand with enthusiasm to answer the little girl's query. The scruffy looking boy opened his mouth to shout a game suggestion when...

"We are _not _doing a mud sculpting contest, Kiba." Ino groaned at the brunet boy. Kiba, in his disappointment, crouched low on the ground to solicit comfort from his little white puppy. "I don't see what your problem is with mud sculptures. They're hecka fun! Right, Akamaru?" The puppy barked in agreement with his owner.

Naruto shrugged her shoulders. "I would have gone with playing in the mud." Seven pairs of eyes suddenly eyed her with mild disgust. Kiba, on the other hand, grinned at her and gave the little girl a thumbs up. "This is why we get along so well, Naruto!"

"I'll g-go with Sa-Sakura on this one, Kiba and Narut-t-to. Sorry." A little girl with short onyx hair murmured. This caused Naruto to slump her shoulders in defeat. "You too, Hinata?" The blonde whined.

"Thanks, Hinata!" The pink-haired girl chirped while crossing her hands at her back.

"So what do we do?" Naruto furrowed her brows and folded her arms against her chest. She proceeded to look at Sasuke who hadn't said a word since the beginning of the discussion.

The nine-year-old Uchiha uninterestedly toyed with the ends of one of his side bangs. "You guys want to play Capture the Flag?" Most of the kids in the group jerked in shock. That was actually a pretty good suggestion.

"Great idea, Sasuke!" Ino and Sakura both exclaimed at the same time. The two little girls then glared death at each other once they realized that they had praised their little crush at the simultaneously. Ahh, female rivalry at its finest. Naruto could only stare funnily at the two girls. She just didn't get it! Although she was his best friend, she couldn't understand Sasuke's appeal.

"Hm. All of you can go ahead and play. I'll stay here and take a nap. Chouji, are you playing?" A boy with black hair tied in a pineapple-looking ponytail drawled. He directed his droopy eyes to one of the kids whom was currently munching on a bag of chips like there was no tomorrow. "Nah. I'm gonna hang with you, Shikamaru." The chubby child followed Shikamaru's lead.

"We'll probably just watch you play. We can be judges or something." Shikamaru dropped to the ground and rested his body on the grass. Chouji sat beside the boy and simply continued to eat away.

"We'll need more players. Why? Because-" A boy with short spiky brown hair decided to pitch in on the conversation. But alas! "It's no fun if only a few of us are playing! Plus the group has an odd number of people. We need more players!" Sakura interrupted the poor boy midsentence. The shades-adorning boy internally wilted with sorrow.

"Excuse us but we happened to overhear your conversation. We'll be happy to fill in for the spots you need!" A boy in a bowl cut and weird wide eyes appeared with a huge grin on his face. Was it just them or did his teeth just twinkle?

"Hi, everyone!" A girl with two buns on her head and a Chinese get-up appeared. Her name was Tenten. She was on the same grade as Naruto's group but was a year older than everyone else. This was so because she had previously lived abroad. From where she came from, children would normally start school at the age of five. With that reasoning, when she moved to Konohagakure, her family stuck with their former residence's tradition and she started schooling later than the kids her own age. "You all know Lee and Neji, right?" Although she was from the same batch as Naruto and the others, that didn't stop her from making friends with the kids a grade higher than hers.

The younger children greeted the newcomers in their own individual ways. They knew of Lee simply because of their connections with Tenten. Neji was a popular figure in school since the boy excelled in all school activities (much like Sasuke). Overall, the two were pretty okay people to hang out with. Lee was hyperactive most of the time. Neji, however, was hit and miss; sometimes, he'd be acting really awkwardly, but most of the time, he'd be all serious and have furrowed eyebrows...

Kind of like right now.

"Neji, w-w-will you b-be playing?" Hinata shyly asked. It was also a well know fact that Neji was Hinata's older cousin.

"A game of Capture the Flag really seems interesting. Count me in." He said monotonously. Neji directed his gaze to Sasuke and shot the little Uchiha a smug smirk. Sasuke glared at the look that was sent his way. Obviously, Hyuuga Neji was challenging him.

The two geniuses blatantly sized each other up. The hushed war between the two kids would have continued on for an indefinite amount of time had Sakura not interrupted.

"I get to be on Sasuke's team!" She tugged on the little boy's arm and cradled it to her chest. This rendered Ino to rigidly show her displeasure. "Well, if you're going on Sasuke's team, billboard brow, then so am I!"

"No way! You go to the other team, Ms. Piggy!"

"Why I outta -!"

Sasuke simply sighed at the two girls fighting for his sole attention. Girls could be such a hassle sometimes. Oh! Speaking of girls...

"Naruto, you be on my team." The little Uchiha ordered his eight-year-old best friend. Quite frankly, she didn't have a say on the matter. She would be on Sasuke's team regardless. "Stop stating the obvious." Naruto answered nonchalantly, shrugging off the jealous disbelieving looks Sakura and Ino were shooting her.

The children were able to group themselves fairly quickly. Since Ino and Sakura couldn't settle their little bout of arguing, Sasuke decided to take matters into his own hands. Regrettably, he put the two annoyances on his team. Therefore, Team Sasuke consisted of Ino, Sakura, Naruto, and Kiba. Team Neji, on the other hand, was made up of Lee, Tenten, Hinata, and Shino (aka the constantly ignored child who had a fixation with bugs).

In a matter of mere minutes, both teams were able to set up their flags (which were really just Sakura's and Hinata's handkerchiefs both respectively tied to fairly long twigs) in obscure well-hidden locations. Team Sasuke had all its members kneeled into a tight circular formation. It looked like the small Uchiha was discussing his strategy with the team as he had in his hand a stick which he was currently using to draw markings on the sand.

"Kiba, you and I will go on the offensive. We have an advantage since we have Akamaru with us. You and he will be able to track down the enemy easily." Sasuke pointedly stared at his offensive team. With Kiba, he had the element of surprise on his side. Ha! He'd have Neji beat piece of cake!

"Sakura, Ino; the both of you will be on defence. Stay just at the border of our safe zone. Apprehend all enemies on sight with caution." Sasuke confidently smirked at the two starry-eyed females. Those two would make an efficient team. Despite their little rivalry, Sakura and Ino had a long running friendship (not too dissimilar from what he and Naruto had). Teamwork between those two was blatantly admirable. Plus, it didn't hurt that they were both trying to impress the dark-haired lad. It was expected that they would try extra hard to please Sasuke.

"So what do I get to do?"

Ah, yes. How could Sasuke forget?

"You keep an eye on the flag." Naruto made a face at the task Sasuke chose for her. Keep an eye on the flag?! Super boring!

"Why can't I go on offence with you?! Flag-watching is so lame! I might fall asleep!" The spunky blonde stuck out her tongue as a means to show her dislike for her role.

Sasuke sighed and tried to explain his reasoning on the matter. "Naruto, keeping watch of the flag is the most essential role. You're our last line of defence."

"But Sasuke!"

"I'm counting on you."

The little girl jerked in surprise. After taking in the information, she nodded with understanding. "I'll do my best." Naruto beamed and gave a thumbs up. Sasuke could only smile back at his favourite blonde.

His team was now organized and ready for the game. "Okay. The game officially starts once Shikamaru shoots the arrow helicopter." The five children positioned themselves in accordance with the task they were given and looked to the sky to await their signal.

Sasuke knelt to the ground in anticipation. He dug his nails hard into the bark of the tree he was using as a support. He physically and mentally prepared himself for the game. Failure was not an option.

Naruto simply stared at the sky waiting for the LED plaything to appear. The girl couldn't care any less about winning. She was already having a good time and the game had barely started; to her, that was the most important thing.

The arrow helicopter shot up through the air like a rocket taking flight. By the time the toy reached its highest peak, Sasuke was already nowhere to be found in their immediate vicinity. Naruto stood smiling as she watched the toy gracefully fall down from the sky.

Today would be a good day, she assumed.

llllllllllllllllllll

"Sasuke, their base is just up ahead. There are two people close by. The closer of the two is a couple of steps that way. The second guy is further on the other side but I can't pinpoint where." Kiba, who was crouched low to the ground in the same manner as his companion, pointed to the locations as he whispered the information to the in-the-zone Uchiha. Sasuke nodded while he formulated an efficient course of action. Suddenly, the team leader spotted a rock the size of his fist within his range. An idea just hit him; pun kind-of-slightly-but-not-really intended.

Sasuke reached for the rock and started to blatantly look around in search for something. Hmm... He could only do this once so he had to be sure.

"What are you doing?" The brown-haired subordinate questioned. When no answer came, Kiba curiously gazed at his puppy, thinking that maybe the dog knew what the darker haired boy was up to. Akamaru cutely scrunched his face up in confusion as he let out an almost inaudible whimper. Apparently, they were both in the dark.

Not soon after, a pleased expression graced Sasuke's baby-ish face. He had possibly found what he was looking for.

"Sasuke?" Kiba probed one last time before Sasuke raised his rock-wielding hand and forcefully threw the object to a large shrub just a ways away. Once the rock had impact, a handful of birds tweeted noisily in fear. What had Sasuke done?! He just successfully handed their position to the other team on a silver platter!

"Sasuk-!"

"Run." The command was so firm that Kiba feared to question any further; so run Kiba did with Akamaru in tow. Sasuke repositioned himself behind the closest tree he could find and waited. He was glad to hear a flurry of footsteps coming his way not long after his little stunt.

"I saw K-K-Kiba run that way." It was Hinata.

There affirmative grunt from the person Hinata was addressing confirmed to the little Uchiha that the girl was talking to Shino. By the looks of it, Kiba and he were up against the enemy scouting team. The footsteps resumed as a sign of the beginning of the pursuit for their dog-adoring classmate and Sasuke took this chance to scurry to the direction Kiba pointed as the other team's base.

When the enemy flag was in sight, Sasuke used all his might to sprint to the item. He was only a few more steps away from the flag when a blur of white and brown attempted to pounce on him. It was a very good thing that Uchiha Sasuke had commendable reflexes. He managed to skid and roll away from the person who tried to catch him. That was definitely a close call.

Sasuke, currently crouched onto one knee, looked up to his pursuer. "Hn." No surprise there whatsoever. In a way, he sort of expected this to happen. A few paces away from where Sasuke was bent over was the form of none other than Neji whom was slowly recovering his stance from his failed attack. Neji, once fully stood up, dusted off the dirt from his khaki shorts. "I'm disappointed, Sasuke. You couldn't have assumed it would be that easy to get our flag." The Hyuuga boy smugly grinned at the younger genius.

"Hn. And you couldn't have assumed it would be easy to tag me, Neji. Maybe you're just not as good as you like to think." Point for Sasuke basing from the small snarl on Neji's part.

"It's on now, Uchiha."

And the battle for Team Neji's flag began.

llllllllllllllllllll

"Ugh! Sasuke, when this is all over, I am gonna smack you so hard that you won't even remember who I am!" Naruto slumped to the ground out of sheer impatience and boredom. Sure, she understood that her duty as a flag keeper was really important but that didn't mean it wasn't boring as crap!

With lack of anything better to do, she began to play with the gem around her neck. Like a shallow-minded bird, the blonde stared with awe at the pretty lights the crystal reflected.

Out of completely nowhere, Lee appeared in all his energetic glory. "Ha! Hello there, Miss Naruto! I've come to take your flag!" The blonde made a face at the older boy's antics. Who announces their presence at a stealth game?! Who?! The sound of Naruto's facepalm was accompanied by a similar sound just behind her. Huh... It was that loud of a facepalm that it echoed into the trees?

"I, Rock Lee, will lead my team to victory!" Cue in Lee's Good Guy pose with matching tooth gleam. So, apparently, Lee's glimmering teeth were not just from the kids' imagination.

"Lee, go back to your base before you hurt yourself." Naruto stood up from her place and scratched the tip of her nose as she placed all her weight onto one leg.

"Oh, Miss Naruto!"

"Stop calling me miss!"

"Oh, Miss Naruto!" Insert Naruto's second facepalm of the day. The guy just didn't listen! "Miss Naruto, you must forgive me. I shall be taking your flag now whether it is with your consent or not.

Naruto playfully glared at Lee while she took a fighting stance. "Bring it on, buddy."

"Dynamic Entry!" The bowl-cut haired boy began to run to gain momentum. Unfortunately, he didn't see the rock that was just ahead of him; and as fate dictated, he just so happened to step on the exact same spot the rock was on. "Ayeeeeee!" Rock Lee stumbled and, ultimately, hit the ground face first. Poor guy.

"Lee! You okay?" Naruto, with clear concern on her features, jogged to the fallen boy. Lee sat up with streams of tears falling from his eyes (and an unattractive river of snot from his nose too). Naruto fondly smiled at the older child. The gross sight was endearing to her in a weird way.

From the opposite side of Naruto's current position, Tenten showed up and grabbed Team Sasuke's flag in a blink of an eye.

"Hey!" Naruto sprinted to Tenten in a desperate move to try and tag the older girl.

"Tenten?" Lee whimpered pathetically.

Tenten winked at her teammate and easily dodged the attack Naruto sent her way. The brunette ran to her comrade and pulled the boy to make a hasty escape. "I've gotta hand it to you, Lee. You messed up with stealth but at least we got the flag all thanks to your klutziness." The girl with cute buns on her hair looked back to the boy she was pulling. Lee's little mishap turned out to be okay in the end. Now, they just had to get back to their base and the win was theirs for the taking.

"Crap!" Naruto muttered as she regained her bearing. She should have figured that it was impossible to have anything echo in a park! That smack she heard back then was Tenten. She should have noticed! "Get back here!" Using all the strength she could pull from herself, the blonde chased after Lee and Tenten like there was no tomorrow.

llllllllllllllllllll

Neji stood firm beside their team flag. It would seem that the boy had lost his visual on the enemy team's leader. In an effort to rectify this problem, he used all five of his senses to try and locate Sasuke. Unbeknownst to him, the little Uchiha was just behind him, hiding in the bushes.

Sasuke kept himself concealed by lying beneath the nearby shrubbery. He was so close to the flag; so close that it was unbearable! He only needed one slip up, and he could take the flag and make a break for it.

"Come on, Uchiha! Face me like a man!" Neji shouted into the air. Hn. Like Sasuke would actually do that. This was a game of wits and stealth; not some lowly brawl. Patience. An opening was bound to come sometime.

"Ahhhhh!" By the luck of the Irish, that opening came fast! It would seem that Kiba was still being pursued by the female Hyuuga and bug boy. The holler from metres away had caused Neji to lose his guard. Sasuke chose that brief moment to rush out of his hiding spot, harshly pull the flag, and sprint away from the older boy.

"My win, Hyuuga!" He taunted as he looked back, clearly enjoying the outright shock on Neji's face. But his elation from victory was short-lived because just when he was about to leave the immediate vicinity, Tenten and Lee shot out from behind the bushes. Everything seemed to go into slow motion as Sasuke saw the two kids run past him with a familiar pink flag in their possession.

No.

They couldn't have!

Sasuke skidded to halt his fast moving form and gazed back with an expression of total horror. As he did so, Tenten successfully touched their base and proceeded to jump around in joy.

Team Neji won.

Neji walked to the miffed younger genius and smirked. "I admit you won our little battle, Sasuke. But clearly, I won the war. Although, I must say that you only won the first time around out of luck. But hey, I'll let you have that win at least." The Hyuuga boy patted the top of Sasuke's head in a teasing manner and returned to his rejoicing team.

"T-t-enten! Lee! Waaaaaaiiit! Ha... ha..." A panting Naruto came out from where Tenten and Lee originated from. She slouched and placed a hand on her knee to keep herself up. Using her free hand, she gestured for the two older children to, as she so clearly shouted, wait.

"Gosh... ha ... darn it... ha. I told them to... ha... slow down." As if anyone would actually listen to that command in a game that consisted of a tag portion.

Sasuke grimly eyed his teammate whom should have had kept her eyes on their flag. "You." The nine-year-old boy growled.

"Huh?" Naruto, still somewhat gasping for air in her exertions, curiously looked to her best friend.

"You made us lose." Sasuke clenched his fist due to immeasurable irritation. Naruto simply furrowed her brows as she straightened her posture. "What do you mean I made us lose?" Suddenly, she wasn't at a loss for air anymore.

The rest of the children, sensing that the game had already ended (judging from the loud yells Lee and Tenten were doing), showed up and congregated.

"It means exactly the way it sounds. You made our team lose. I told you to keep an eye on the flag. That was your only job! You probably started watching some unimportant insect and lost focus like the complete imbecile that you are!" The blonde took a step back; the blow of Sasuke's words dealt a hurtful pang in her chest. She was used to Sasuke teasing her with 'imbecile', 'moron', 'stupid', words to that effect; she knew he didn't really mean them those other times because it was all in jest. But this time around, Sasuke completely meant what he said and it absolutely hurt her.

"Hm. Should've known Naruto would be our weak link." Sakura pouted as she stuck her nose high up into the air. Ino just stood in her place, appearing quite ambiguous. All the rest seemed to look at the fair-haired child with pity. Sasuke, for the very first time in history, wasn't on her side.

Naruto snarled at Sasuke in a way she had never done before. "It's not like I purposefully wanted us to lose! I did my best, okay!"

"Hn. Well, your best obviously wasn't good enough! This is what I get for having a dead last teammate!"

"Well, soooo-rry, Mr. I'm-so-great!" Naruto rolled her eyes. These two were effectively making everyone feel awkward. Even Lee and Tenten had to pause their celebration.

"I don't want you on my team, Naruto! _Ever_!" Sasuke fervently screamed at the girl, causing her to flinch. The silence that ensued had everyone getting goosebumps on their skin. Suddenly, the air just felt a little chillier than it did a few seconds ago.

"Fine. Be that way, Sasuke." Naruto attempted to heatedly glare at Sasuke but the look only ended up making her appear like a kicked puppy. She turned and walked away from the group, leaving the raven-haired boy to play with everyone else.

"Come on, Sasuke. I bet we can win the next round since Naruto's not on our team anymore. Cheer up!" Sakura lightly gripped Sasuke's arm as a means to gain his attention.

"Hn." With that simple grunt, Sasuke ignored the way Naruto walked away dejectedly from the group.

llllllllllllllllllll

A couple of hours later, Sasuke returned to the bench he last saw Jiraiya seated on. As expected, the man was still there only this time, he wasn't writing on his notebook anymore. Jiraiya was currently trying to console the clearly upset Naruto by his side; her face had a sour look on and she was glaring at nothing in particular.

The little Uchiha approached the two to proclaim his desire to go home. Jiraiya nodded in response but Naruto totally ignored the boy's presence completely. She merely left her seat and went to the direction of her godfather's car.

The little Uchiha glared at Naruto's back and followed. Hn. As if Naruto ignoring him would make him feel differently.

The ride home was a silent affair. Naruto sat staring at her window the entire time. Sasuke had done the same and looked out to his window but he would peek at the girl beside him every so often. The only person trying to make conversation was the white-haired man whom was on his way to drop Sasuke off. He asked about what they did today, who they were with, and so on, but the only replies he got were of grunts and short answers.

When Jiraiya arrived at the gates of the grand Uchiha household, he unlocked the door to let the little boy out of the car.

"See you tomorrow, Sasuke." Jiraiya said his goodbye in a hushed solemn tone. Sasuke opened the door on his side of the car and stepped out. "See you tomorrow, Uncle Jiraiya." The boy warily looked to the blonde whom was tautly seated behind her godfather. She was still looking out her window; obviously trying not to make any sort of contact with the little Uchiha."

Sasuke pleadingly furrowed his brows for a moment but decided that he was still pretty irritated at the girl. "Hn." To show his annoyance, the little boy slammed the door shut and let himself in Uchiha property.

Once he was sure the boy was safely in the house, Jiraiya drove off with a still angry godchild as a passenger.

Let it be known that this was the very first time Sasuke and Naruto did not settle their fight within a day's time.


	9. Did I Stutter?

**A/N: **Hola readers!

The game is still on, fellas! I'm happy to announce that I also have my random number!

The ending of this chapter is so much like the ending of one of Fast Car's chapters. -_-" Whelp. Whatever. I like how this chapter ends anyway. Not too bad, but not really super great either. Just okay, I guess. Haha!

To everyone who has been a faithful reader of this story: Thanks very much for the support! :)

***DISCLAIMER APPLIES***

* * *

**BEFORE THE WORST**

**Did I Stutter?**

**Part II**

The next day, Sasuke had his mother taking him to the park. The beautiful young mother accompanied her son to the play area where she would hopefully find two particular people. Sasuke, although having his mother firmly hold his hand, kept his head held up high and walked with a noble air to him. It was interesting how this boy liked to make himself appear cool even when his mother was now crouched down to his level and pinching his cheek.

Ugh! Didn't she know he was way past the age of cheek-pinching!

In an attempt to boost his dented ego, Sasuke lightly pushed his mother's hand away from his face and soothingly rubbed the pinched portion of his cheek. "Mom, stop that. You're embarrassing me." He mutely reprimanded his mother.

"Aw, Sasuke sweetie, you're just too cute that I can't help it!" She took her son by surprise and gave the little boy a loving embrace.

"Mooooom!"

Mikoto giggle at her blushing boy. He looked so cute in his jeans and his short-sleeved shirt. It was a shame that Sasuke was at the age where hugs and kisses were starting to get humiliating. How she missed her little baby Sasuke with his big wide eyes and chubby cheeks. Oh! And how he used to call her 'Mommy' and run up to her with arms wide open for a hug! Her brief recollection of fond memories had the mother reinvigorating the tight hug she had on her son. "Mommy loves you, Sasuke!"

Oh, if people thought Sasuke was flushed before, that was no comparison to the blush he had now. He looked akin to the very hellish red of a red chilli pepper. It was actually a very comical sight to behold.

"Mom! Quit it!" The little boy managed to escape from his mother's grasps. He began to look around to see if anyone had seen the mortifying familial display of affection. A person suddenly ruffled his hair from behind.

"Don't be like that, champ! It's nice to see a mother and her son bond like that!"

Shoot! Apparently, someone had seen him and his mother! The lad didn't have to look back to know who had witnessed them.

"Hey, Uncle Jiraiya." Sasuke eyed the man with exasperation pouring out of his boyish form in waves.

"Jiraiya, I'm so sorry for leaving you with the kids so much. I promise to make it up to you somehow." Mikoto apologetically stated. As she had in the previous day, she would be taking care of some leftover paperwork from yesterday's chore. The young mother would be leaving Sasuke to Jiraiya's care once again.

"It's fine, Mikoto. It's no trouble. You go finish what you have to do. I'll take care of things from here." Jiraiya assured the gorgeous woman. Mikoto bowed her head in gratitude to the older gentleman. She looked to her son and gave the boy a chaste kiss on the cheek before whispering "Have a good day, Sasuke" to her youngest son. Mikoto waved her goodbye and promptly left the vicinity.

"Come on, kiddo! We don't want to keep Naruto waiting!" At Jiraiya's mention of the blonde's name, Sasuke visibly tensed his whole body. That's right... How could he have forgotten?

"Sasuke? Something wrong, champ?"

Yes! There was definitely something wrong!

"Nope. I'm okay, Uncle Jiraiya."

Naruto wasn't speaking to him, was she?

Overnight, Sasuke had managed to calm down from yesterday's events. He truly felt guilty for saying those things to his best friend. Truthfully, he just let competitiveness get the better of him. In his defeat, since he couldn't lash out at Neji, he took out his anger on Naruto. So _not _cool.

As Jiraiya and Sasuke approached the playing grounds, the little Uchiha sighted the hyper little blonde playing with Kiba and Akamaru. Sasuke was ecstatic to see that the little girl was all smiles and giggles that day. Maybe, like Sasuke, she had calmed down from yesterday's fit! Sasuke ran to her with a small smile on his face. The chances of him being already forgiven were very high.

"Naruto!" He called out to the t-shirt and shorts adorning little girl. The blonde turned her head to the person whom had just called her name. Once her bright blue eyes focussed on Sasuke's form, her whole cheerful demeanour did a one-eighty. The raven-haired boy immediately slowed his pace once the girl had shot him a very grim frown.

"Hey Kiba, let's go play in some other place. This part of the park is getting a little boring." Naruto snapped her gaze to the other direction and left the area. Kiba, after understanding Naruto's mood shift, ruefully looked at Sasuke and waved in an apologetic manner. The brunet and his puppy then followed the blond little girl in her quest to search for a new area to play in.

Sasuke snarled at Naruto's dismissal. If she was going to be like that then two can play it that way! Sasuke shoved both his hands in his pocket and walked the opposite way from Naruto's path. Not like he would have a hard time looking for other people to hang out with. Despite his new resolve to ignore Naruto, he couldn't help but look back every so often to see what the blonde was up to.

llllllllllllllllllll

The next few days weren't so much different from the first day after Sasuke and Naruto's fight. Basically, a day would consist of Sasuke pathetically trying (but not making is seem that he was) to approach Naruto in any way he could. She would then take notice of him, glare, then be on her merry way. Sasuke would then huff in annoyance and look for other people to play with. Once he had had found people he could tolerate to be with, he would proceed to attempt to at least have fun. During which, he would sneak peeks at the tomboyish little girl in the hopes that maybe she was looking at him too.

But alas!

Every time Sasuke looked to her direction, she would be happily smiling or boisterously laughing. It was as if she hadn't thought of him at all in the past couple of days! It was seriously grating on Sasuke's nerves!

Today, Naruto was hanging out with Hinata, Lee, and Shino; a weird combination of people. Sasuke initially expected Naruto to be bored out of her mind in a matter of minutes. But nooo! She was giggling and jumping and fist pumping and yelling and doing whatever the heck she wanted because she was obviously having a blast!

"Sasuke, is something wrong?" Sakura asked from the swing beside him. So into his mental ranting that he never noticed how he had stopped pushing himself on the swing and was starting to get red in the face due to infuriation.

Sasuke took a deep breath to calm himself and directed his gaze to the pink-haired little lady beside him. She looked awfully concerned about him. Frankly, he didn't feel like explaining himself at the moment. "I'm fine, Sakura." The girl nodded in understanding, thinking it wise to try and not probe any further.

The little Uchiha glimpsed at the Uzumaki child once again. She appeared like she was having such a good time with everyone else. Did she not miss having him around? Sasuke sadly watched the little blonde prance around in utter joy without him.

Much as he'd like to deny it, he really missed his best friend right now.

llllllllllllllllllll

The Uchiha family couldn't shake off the feeling that maybe, just maybe, their youngest family member was moping. The little boy pouted as he made rude sounds with his plate; he barely even touched his meal. A sigh erupted from his mouth as he ran his fingers through his set of black hair. That was the twentieth sigh in a span of five minutes! The boy was definitely upset about something.

"What's with you, Sasuke? I only get to be here on break for a week. Don't burden me any further with your sulking and just tell us what the problem is. Is the meatloaf not to your liking?" Itachi took one for the team and voiced out the rest of the family's concern. Sasuke pouted at his older brother's bluntness. He was so not sulking! And as if he was childish enough to be sulking over (he was NOT sulking) food he didn't like.

"Sweetheart, what's the matter? You've been down lately." Mikoto gently placed her utensils on her plate to assume a stance that was more conducive to listening. The youngest Uchiha sighed (Twenty-first sigh. Not that Itachi was counting). The little boy looked around the table and noticed how everyone had followed his mother's example and set respective utensils down in order to listen to his woes. Even his father was looking at him expectantly. Tch. Now, he really had to explain himself.

"It's about Naruto." He confessed in a breathy tone as his posture slumped in defeat.

"Naruto?" Itachi and Fugaku asked at the same time. To think Sasuke had known Naruto for five years and two of his family members didn't know who she was.

"Sasuke's best friend." Mikoto kindly provided the answer for her husband and her eldest son. The youngest child nodded his head to affirm the information.

"Hn. Never knew you had a best friend, son." Fugaku guiltily smirked at his boy. Clearly, he needed to spend more time with his son.

"Let me guess. She has blond hair, blue eyes, and those marks on her cheeks?" Itachi asked before taking a bite of mashed potatoes. Sasuke quirked his brows at his brother's query. "How did you know? Plus, how'd you know she was a girl? I couldn't even tell the first time I saw her."

The fourteen-year-old Uchiha shrugged and eyed the carrot precariously balanced on his fork. "I saw her once. To answer your second question, little brother, she was wearing a skirt for Pete's sake. Obviously, a girl. Besides, even if she wasn't wearing a skirt, I still would have known. She has the general girly feel about her." Sasuke pouted at the explanation Itachi granted him. Hn. Naruto having a girly feel? Psh! What did Itachi know!

"Sasuke has a female best friend?" Fugaku's eyebrows shot up in surprise.

"Hey, hey, hey! No sidetracking!" The woman scolded her exceedingly uninformed husband. "Tell us what's on your mind, sweetie." Mikoto gently placed her hand atop Sasuke's smaller ones in a comforting gesture. The boy cringed; he hoped everyone would have forgotten the initial issue by now. So with a sigh, Sasuke admitted his dilemma. "Naruto's been avoiding me."

Mikoto took on an expression of perplexity. "Is there any reason she's avoiding you?" Because Naruto ignoring people on a whim was not Naruto at all.

Gulp.

Yes. Of course, there was. Otherwise, Naruto would still be hanging out with him.

"I blamed her for making our team lose at Capture the Flag. I ended up shouting at her and calling her names." Sasuke shamefully lowered his head in anticipation of the tirade of scolding he would get from his mother.

"Hn. I don't see the problem."

"Fugaku!" The mother of the household gasped at her husband's opinion.

"What? If it was her fault then what's the problem with reprimanding the person who was at the wrong?" From a business point of view, Fugaku made perfect sense. If someone made a mistake in his company that caused an operation to fail, that person would surely get a mouthful from him. This, however, was not business.

Mikoto sighed exasperatedly at her husband. "That's understandable, Fugaku; but we're talking about kids who're playing a game. Unless she really meant to have her team lose on purpose, I highly doubt a harsh scolding is in order."

"Just saying, dear." The man returned to his meal after he said his piece.

Mikoto returned her attention back to her youngest son and solemnly looked at him. "Have you apologized to her?"

Itachi snickered at the way his little brother bit his lip in anxiety. Evidently not. The teen, following his father's actions, continued to eat his dinner while paying attention to his mother and his little brother's exchange. Unlike Sasuke, he actually liked meatloaf; and, like any normal person, he liked to eat his dinner while it was still hot, thank you very much.

"Sasuke, you have to apologize to her otherwise she won't be speaking to you for a while. I don't think Naruto is the type of person to hold a grudge. Sooner or later, she'll start talking to you again; but, honey, apologizing would be the right thing to do." Mikoto coolly explained to her boy. She was right. Naruto would never hold a grudge; much less against Sasuke for that matter. Although, she wanted to have her son learn the value of humility; and recognizing when oneself was in the wrong was under that bracket.

"Hn. I don't see why I should say sorry, Mom. You said so yourself that she would be talking to me sooner or later. Why can't I just wait it out?" Sasuke drooped against his seat and crossed his arms against his chest. What was the point of apologizing if the whole matter would fix itself in a few days' time?

The young mother brushed her son's bangs away and let her hand caress the boy's scalp. "Because that's wrong, Sasuke. Also, think about it. If you say sorry tomorrow, you won't have to be moping around any further since Naruto would be playing with you again."

Sasuke felt his left eye twitch at the word his mother decided to describe him with. "I am _not _moping!" The boy harrumphed at the notion of having to ask for the klutzy girl's forgiveness. Mikoto, sensing the lingering stubbornness from her son, put things in a better perspective. One that she was sure Sasuke would be more understanding of. "Sasuke, are you willing to risk a good friendship because of your pride?"

That singular question had every male member of the Uchiha family halting all movement. Itachi and Fugaku waited in anticipation at the youngest's answer. Mikoto, on the other hand, already knew what Sasuke's verdict would be. Judging from the look on the boy's face, there was no contest.

Sasuke would be apologizing to Naruto the next day. She was sure of it.

llllllllllllllllllll

Naruto sat on the ground beside a boy Sasuke didn't know and had never seen before. The little Uchiha hatefully glared at Naruto's chosen companion. The boy had black hair and was creepily pale. Just from the strange boy's looks, Sasuke could already tell that he didn't like the kid.

Thankfully, the boy decided to take his leave but not before taking the blonde's right hand and laying a light smack on the outer side of the girl's palm. Sasuke growled at gallant gesture. Who did that nowadays? Seriously? Finally, the boy ran off and left the confused-looking girl behind. Now was Sasuke's chance.

"Hey." He called from just behind the little girl. Naruto abruptly turned her head to address whoever was calling her attention. For a half second, Sasuke saw the way Naruto's face light up once she had a visual of her best friend; but the expression left as soon as it appeared, to be replaced by an unintimidating scowl. "What do you want, Sasuke?" The must have been a good sign! In the previous days, Naruto didn't even bother talking to him. At least now, she recognized his presence.

"So..." Sasuke looked away as he scratched the back of his neck. This was so awkward for him! Naruto arched a brow, clearly waiting and probing for Sasuke to speak out.

A couple of seconds passed and the silence wagered on.

Okay...

He'd apologize any second now...

Aaaaany second now.

A whoosh of air blew past the children, carrying with it an average-sized tumbleweed.

...

Where the heck did that tumbleweed come from?

Urgh!

Sasuke couldn't take this anymore! Might as well just say it and get it all over and done with!

"Look. I'm sorry for being such a jerk, okay? Will you stop ignoring me now?" Sasuke pathetically mumbled the apology. Thankfully, it was loud enough for Naruto to hear the appeal for mercy.

The blonde let a malicious glint show in her eyes. She stood up, dusted the dirt away from her person, and smugly stared at the boy in front of her. "What did you say? I didn't quite hear you." She cupped a hand around her ear in a teasing sign that she was having trouble hearing the boy.

Sasuke looked at the girl with mild irritation on his features. "Moron, did I stutter? You heard what I said."

Naruto poked Sasuke's forehead as a means to scold the latter. "Well. If you're going to be like that then I'm just gonna have to play with someone else." A flash of a sickly pale boy with onyx hair flashed across Sasuke's mind. No way he would let Naruto go play with that weirdo!

Sasuke reached for Naruto's hand and looked directly into her eyes. With all the sincerity he could muster, he finally said what he should have said days ago. "I'm sorry, Naruto. Please forgive me."

Naruto stood shocked for a moment, but once the words sunk in, she happily beamed at her best friend. She threw her weight to the boy and embraced him like she hadn't seen him in ages. "I missed you!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes yet returned the show of affection. "Yeah. You too, Elle." For a handful of seconds, the two stayed like that as if starved from each other's presence. They sincerely did miss each other. No doubt about that. Once she had her fill, Naruto pulled away from her best friend and took his hand. She then, subsequently, pulled the boy with her. "Look at what I found yesterday, S'uke! It's super cool! It's probably the biggest spider I have ever seen. You'll never believe it!"

Sasuke shook his head at his boyish friend. This girl, through the years, unfortunately (fortunately) became a necessity to him. He made a mental note in his head that he promised to abide by ceaselessly. He totally would never keep himself away from Naruto for extended periods of time. Being away from her just _couldn't _be done, he figured. So he swore to himself and to Naruto...

Never again.

He'd never let his pride cause troubles for them ever again.

But of course, walking the talk was a whole different matter.


	10. SA?

**A/N: **Heya guys. Been a real looooong while. Ahehehe. Sorry. Life's just been getting more and more hectic (Sometimes I seriously ask myself why I chose premed -.-"). And add a heartbreak to that and you have yourself a very unmotivated writer. :p Yeah. Unsolicited info. Just needed to rant a little.

Okay! Enough of my life's woes and on to more serious matters! Like SasuNaru for example. :3 Yes. I take my SasuNaru seriously.

So my proposed game wasn't such a success. D: Oh woe is the embarrassed writer (doom and gloom) But hey. I guess it happens. I've decided to grant CloudNine the win! Yay! My random number was 7. You got the closest number up. :) I added my own personal twist to your suggested theme if you don't mind. :) I hope you like it! Plus, I've decided to add another prize. When the time comes, I plan on letting you read the chapter on how Sasuke and Naruto "go wrong" before I post it on the site. Another yay!

One more thing. To OpenPervert-Chan, as a sign of my gratitude for playing my game, I will be writing your suggested theme as the next chapter. :D

Little shout out to all the Sherlock fans out there! Woot woot!

Do any of you guys know Luke Luck and Oliver Strange? If you don't, OH MY GOD! Check them out. The BEST SasuNaru cosplay ever. Haha! Ovaries exploded, reformed, and imploded.

**NOTE:** I never took violin lessons so I'm just pulling this out of my bum. Ahehe. But in my defence, Canon in D was one of the first few pieces I learned on the piano. I'm assuming Sasuke can pull the same feat off if he were real. ... Maybe.

**FAST CAR:** Ahehe. I swear I'm still writing this! Just really really reaaaaally slowly (mostly due to a slight writer's block). Please be patient with me. :) and I'm really sorry about the great delay. The next part still has a long way to go. Having a really hard time getting into the groove of writing it. (bows head multiple times in apology) I'M SO SORRY!

***DISCLAIMER APPLIES* - I would also like to cite the work of Arthur Conan Doyle "Sherlock Holmes"**

* * *

**BEFORE THE WORST**

**S.A.?**

"It's so annoying! No matter how much I dodge him, he keeps getting me with that darn 'Sin Harvest'!" Naruto threw her arms in the air as she expressed her great frustration over the game she had yet to finish. The two nine-year-old kids were taking their sweet time walking through the halls of the local Community Centre just beside the Konoha Public Library. Through the suggestion of Sasuke's father, Mikoto enrolled their youngest son into one of the programs the centre provided. The young mother then passed the suggestion to Jiraiya which, subsequently, the old gentleman followed through. Naruto, much to her utter disgust, was in the Basic Cheerleading program that occurred twice a week; but she had to admit that the little stunts the instructor was teaching were pretty cool. What she really loathed about the class was the cheering itself. She hated the excessive nodding, smiling and the perky way they had to shout 'Go team!'. Now, it was also advised to wear shirts or skirts designed for cheerleading to execute their movements with more ease. Naruto drew the line at that; she could stomach cheesy cheers but not skirts or short shorts. No. Nuh-uh. No way. So she decided to wear her usual black sweatpants and a loose orange 'Eat my shorts' shirt.

Sasuke gradually slowed his pacing as he approached his designated locker. The boy crouched in order to acquire his belongings. Naruto leaned against the row of lockers and groaned. "Every time! He gets me with that attack every single time! It's all..." The blonde mustered the most impassive face she could and squared her shoulders. With the deepest voice she could conjure, she attempted to imitate the current bane of her existence. "Sin Harvest.", she said and the flurry of movements that followed, Sasuke assumed, was her trying to do her version of the attack. Overall, it looked like she was having a seizure.

Once all his items were in his possession, Sasuke closed the locker and stood up from his crouching position. Naruto finally was finished with her pathetic display of fighting and she was now panting like an overheated pup.

"I told you a thousand times that before he even finishes the words 'Sin Harvest', you have to hit him with Strike Raid. THEN and only then do you dodge his next move." Sasuke secured his backpack on his back and continued with Naruto down the hall.

"Pshh! Easier said than done." The blonde pouted as she defended her nth loss against the silver-haired boss in her game. The raven-haired lad, only half-listening by this point in the conversation, merely grunted in response. In sudden remembrance, the boy swung his back pack to his front and fished for his music sheets. Quickly finding what he needed, he swiftly pulled the pieces of paper out of his bag and silently read on.

Naruto leaned over to her best friend to take a peek at the little boy's notes. "Is this the song you were complaining about the other day?"

"Hn." That was enough of an answer for Naruto to understand that yes, that was the song he was grumbling about two days prior. See, Uchiha Sasuke, like what every child did to appease their stereotypical rich family, was taking piano lessons thrice a week. But wait! Not only that! Apparently, he was also enrolled into the biweekly violin lessons by his dear sweet mother. Uchiha Mikoto was always more artsy fartsy than academic.

Needless to say, Sasuke had a full schedule on his hands because of that.

"Canon in D?" Naruto snorted out the piece's plain title. "What kind of title is that? I was expecting something more creative."

Sasuke shrugged, silently agreeing with his blond companion. In his opinion, any work of art deserved a title; in the same way a person deserved a name. Tch. Canon in D. That's like naming Naruto 'blondie' instead of 'Naruto'.

Sasuke strayed from his line of thought as he studied his sheet music once more. He internally sighed at the succession of black dots and lines printed on the paper. That really was a hard piece considering that he had only started with his violin lessons seven weeks ago. Thankfully, piano lessons were going without a hitch for him.

"Hey. I thought you said excelling was embedded in your Uchiha genes or something?" Naruto teasingly grinned at the older child. She then pointed her right index finger towards the boy by her side.

"Huh, Sasuke?" Poke.

" ... "

"Hey, Sasuke? What'd you say to that, huh?" Poke. Poke.

A twitch of the mouth.

"Excelling eh? Sasuke?" Poke. Poke. Jab.

A tick formed on his forehead.

"Sasukeeee?"

The young Uchiha smacked the pesky blonde upside the head which earned a yelp of pain from the latter. One had to wonder how these two still got along. What had Sasuke been thinking when he thought Naruto wasn't loud or annoying the day they met? He must have been crazy or something.

"Sasuke's so mean to me!" The blonde rubbed the spot her best friend just hit as a gesture of self-comfort. Likewise, she didn't know what she saw in Sasuke in the first place; but it was all too late now. They were stuck with each other whether they liked it or not.

"Stop being annoying, stupid."

"Hmph! See if I let you borrow my comic books again, you grump! And stop saying bad words!"

Sasuke simply sniggered at Naruto's scolding. She never did get over the 'Stupid' issue.

"Hi Sasuke!" The clear voice of a little girl chirped by the duo's side. A cute little lass with light brown hair and hazel eyes tilted her head playfully. She flippantly swayed her body side to side, causing her baby blue dress to flutter across the air.

Sasuke arched an eyebrow at the way the girl was trying to make herself look endearing. Quite frankly, he thought she looked ridiculous as she twirled a portion of her shoulder-length hair with her finger.

"Sasuke, I was wondering if you could let me borrow some of your sheets so I could have them copied. My little brother decided it would be a good idea to draw on my notes." The girl scowled as she recalled how her little brother showed her his picture of a dog which was drawn on said notes she left out the day before. She pouted and winked as she simultaneously placed her hands together in a pleading gesture. "Please? Sasuke?"

This only served to irritate Sasuke even more. He didn't even know her! How dare she address him so familiarly? And to ask for his notes no less! The nerve!

"Hi! My name's Naruto? What's yours?" Just when Sasuke thought it couldn't get any worse, Naruto went ahead and introduced herself to the girl whose identity was yet to be known.

"Eh?" The brown-haired girl turned her attention to the blonde by Sasuke's side. She placed her hands on her hips as she gave Naruto a once over. Once she deemed Naruto to be of no threat, she gave the most absurd introduction.

"I'm one of Sasuke's friends!"

If it weren't such an unflattering sound, Sasuke would have definitely snorted right then and there. How could she be one of his friends when he didn't even know who she was?!

"Oh, I see." Naruto gave the girl a wary smile before turning her attention to her best friend. "Hey S'uke? Who is she? How come you haven't introduced me to her?" She whispered to her companion, making the other girl unable to hear the query.

"Che. She's lying." That was by no means a whisper. Sasuke made sure that the brown-haired girl could hear what he thought about the prospect of them being 'friends'. The little girl flinched at Sasuke's words. Judging from her looks, she was about a few seconds away from crying. Naruto shot the girl a sympathetic look.

The dress-adorning child took a deep breath to compose herself. She had gotten this far. No way would she back down now when she had tried so hard to gather enough courage to even speak to the Uchiha boy in her presence. "Aw Sasuke! I'm Tsubaki! You know? Ono Tsubaki?"

Naruto silently sighed in relief. She was glad that Sasuke's nasty tendencies didn't get to Tsubaki. The blonde looked to see Sasuke's reaction. Maybe since Tsubaki gave her name, Sasuke would recognize where he had met the girl.

"Hn. I still don't know who you are." The young Uchiha glared at the girl who was claiming to be his friend. Friend my butt! She was probably just another girl trying to get his attention. The lass only kept silent after Sasuke declared his apparent unfamiliarity with her. Great! It was enough that she was delusional; now, she was mute too? Tch. "If that's all, I would like it if you stopped wasting my time." This caused another flinch to erupt from the child who was now scrunching up the bottom of her dress with her hands. She was wincing, evidently from distress.

"Come on, knucklehead." Sasuke firmly gripped Naruto's wrist and made motions of pulling the blonde away.

Naruto scowled at her best friend, definitely not liking the way he was treating the other girl. "Sasuke, be nice." The whisker-cheeked girl pulled her arm away and crossed her upper limbs across her chest; not too pleased with Sasuke as of the moment.

Noticing Naruto's refusal to move, Sasuke growled in defeat. His gal pal wouldn't be moving any time soon unless he apologized to this Tsubaki girl. The things he did for Naruto...

Sasuke approached Tsubaki and cleared his throat. "My bad." The boy mumbled. It was a God-awful attempt at an apology but that was all Tsubaki would be getting from Sasuke. Nothing more, nothing less. Now that that apology was out of the way, he and Naruto could actually leave.

"So how do you know Sasuke, Tsubaki?" Naruto popped up from behind Sasuke.

Whelp.

Guess Sasuke would have to interact with the Ono girl for a bit more.

Tch.

"Uhm. He's in the same violin class as I am." Tsubaki scratched her button nose so as to hide the light blush on her cheeks. Now that she mentioned it, Sasuke could actually recognize her as one of the many obscure female faces in his class. Hn. So she actually _did _know Sasuke and not just know _of _him.

"Cool." The blonde beamed at the other girl. She then put her arm around Sasuke's shoulders and pulled the boy close to her person. "Sorry that this guy's being such a jerk. He hasn't had his nap yet." Naruto's apology on Sasuke's behalf earned a small chuckle from the brown-haired girl. The Uchiha was so glad that his discomfort was source of amusement for the two girls.

Tsubaki nodded her head in acceptance of Naruto's words of empathy. "So hey, I actually really did need to borrow Sasuke's music sheets so..."

Naruto smirked at Tsubaki's uncompleted request for the blonde's assistance to attain Sasuke's notes. The fair-haired child roughly prodded Sasuke's side with her free hand. This resulted to Sasuke stifling a giggle that threatened to escape. The charcoal-eyed boy deemed Tsubaki not worthy enough to know that he, Uchiha Sasuke, was ticklish to an extent.

Disguising a chuckle that passed through his lips as a growl, Sasuke relented and pulled away from Naruto's hold. "So what song did you need?" He gruffly inquired his classmate.

"Ode To Joy."

"Hn."

Sasuke took less than ten seconds to search and give the girl the piece she needed. When the notes were in Tsubaki's possession, Sasuke couldn't help but hear a myriad of cheering a few paces away. Before Sasuke could pinpoint where exactly the noise was coming from, Tsubaki took hold of his sleeve to get his attention.

"Thank you, Sasuke! Thanks, Naruto!" The utter joy in her tone was hardly concealed. Even her eyes brightened at the fact that she had _The_ Uchiha Sasuke's notes in her hands. She was just extremely happy right now!

Tsubaki focussed her gaze beyond Sasuke and Naruto forms and gave an ear-splitting grin that made even her plain eyes twinkle. She squealed and ran past the two friends, all the while waving the sheets of paper in the air.

Sasuke and Naruto looked back only to find a group of children who were just about their age clapping Tsubaki in the back and congratulating her as if she had just won a free trip to the amusement park. A pewter-haired girl who looked to be Tsubaki's closest friend embraced the latter tightly as a show of joy for the female violinist.

After Tsubaki had calmed down from her fangirling high, her group of friends fondly eyed the two friends. Truthfully, Naruto was expecting the group to be hounding Sasuke after his show of tolerance for Tsubaki. What she wasn't expecting however was the attention she was getting from Tsubaki's only male friend in the group.

"Thanks for helping Baki out, blondie!" A boy who looked to be about a year older than Naruto shouted his gratitude. The blonde took a few moments to study the boy's features. She tilted her head to the side as she eyed the navy blue bandana the boy adorned around his forehead. Weird. It's not as if the boy had any stray hair to keep out of his face. He had a buzz cut for Pete's sake. Hmm. Maybe it was just his fashion sense or something? At least the rest of the boy's clothing seemed fairly normal. Jeans and a t-shirt? Yup. You couldn't get any normal than that.

"Yeah! No problem!" Naruto grinned in response. This caused the boy to smile at her in the same manner.

Somehow, Sasuke didn't like the way that kid was grinning at _his_ best friend.

The girl that was previously clinging to Tsubaki pulled at bandana boy's shirt. Much to Sasuke's great pleasure, the kid wasn't focussed onto Naruto anymore. Instead, he was looking at Tsubaki's pewter-haired friend. Whispered exchanges were made and Sasuke glared at the fact that the boy with the buzz-cut was now blushing. Not soon after the brief exchange did the boy shyly approach Naruto.

And that was enough for Sasuke to pull Naruto away. Far, _far _away.

"Hey!" Buzzy (as Sasuke so kindly named the boy) shouted for them to halt their departure.

"Sasuke! What's with you? The guy wanted to say something!" Naruto tried to fight the way Sasuke was nearly hauling her away from Tsubaki's peers. She had absolutely no idea what had come over her best friend. That, truthfully, was the very first time she saw Sasuke acting up in this manner and she didn't know what to make of it.

"Sasuke!"

"We're going to your place. I'm gonna show you how to beat your game."

And just like that, Sasuke dodged Naruto's questioning.

Poor naive little Sasuke. Thinking that pulling his best friend away would keep a certain child from pursuing the blonde.

llllllllllllllllllll

It had been four days since the Tsubaki incident and Sasuke was pleased to say that Buzzy wasn't bothering him or Naruto in any way. The two were, once again, casually pacing through the halls of the Community Centre having just finished with their lessons.

"I'm telling you, S'uke. You gotta watch this series. One of the characters was so cute! He was a five-year-old with an afro do and he was wearing a cow-print onesie!" Naruto visualized the little hitman in the series she was currently watching. Not that she was being smug or anything but she could actually imitate the character's voice actor perfectly. Their voices were so alike that it was even creeping her out.

Sasuke leaned against the locker beside Naruto's and ignored the little bout of nonsensical blabbing the blonde was doing. In his opinion, a series about mafia babies and wimpy mafia bosses didn't sound so appealing to him.

"It's just weird that every time the main character goes into this Super Saiyan mode, he ends up in his boxers." She snorted at the memory. "Actually pretty funny now that I think about it some more. His clothes burn off and then ... eh?"

Sasuke, despite not fully listening, caught the sudden pause in the story and checked to see what had bothered with his best friend's recap. Apparently, Naruto had opened her locker during her yapping session and out came a piece of paper that came fluttering down to the floor.

"What's this?" She bent down and picked the paper up. Sasuke silently watched the way Naruto's blue eyes raked over the words written on the note. Curiously enough, a hint of red was steadily getting darker in hue on Naruto's adorable cheeks. A few minutes passed and Naruto had yet to utter a single sound.

"So? What's it say?" The little Uchiha's impatience got the better of him and he peeked over Naruto's shoulder to see what had the girl blushing like a loon. As soon as the little girl felt Sasuke's presence looking over her shoulder, she immediately tried to hide the contents of the piece of paper by placing the note flat on her chest. "Nothing important! Nothing at all!", she hastily supplied to placate.

Sasuke did a downward tilt of his lips as a clear sign of his aggravation.

Nothing?

That clearly didn't sound like nothing.

"A-a-anyways, let's get out of here." Naruto abruptly turned and quickly paced away towards the Centre lobby. Sasuke followed suit and matched the girl's strides. The lad inconspicuously glanced sideways to his companion, only to find that she was still blushing and clinging to the note like her life depended on it.

Now, Sasuke, being the genius that he was, could have thought of a million and a half ways to make Naruto slip up and show the writings on her note; but nooo, Sasuke would have none of it. Why bother complicating life when the simplest method was openly ready to be used?

So use the simplest method he did.

With so much fluidity, Sasuke placed his right leg in front of Naruto's path.

One didn't need a Mensa certificate to know what happened next.

"AYIEEE!"

An unlady like screech to be followed by a cringingly loud thud.

There, Naruto lay flat on the ground with her face planted to the floor. It was actually quite comical to see how the girl was sprawled unmoving on the ground. Poor child. Having such a sadistic best friend was never a good idea.

"Hn. Blockhead." Sasuke smirked at the muffled groans of pain that erupted from the blonde. The raven-haired lad eyed the piece of paper that came fluttering down to the ground. Once the paper settled beside Naruto's still faceplanted head, Sasuke picked the note up and quickly read its contents.

Saying that Sasuke was enraged at the previously hidden words was the understatement of the century.

The young Uchiha, after satiating his curiosity, pocketed the note just in time before Naruto lifted her head from the ground to start screaming murder at her so-called best friend.

"Argh! You're such a jerk!" She haphazardly sat herself on the floor and glared up to the boy. "Freaking random acts of violence! Remind me again why I choose to hang out with you?"

Sasuke simple shrugged and walked away.

Oh yeah. A total jerk for a best friend.

"Sasuke! Wait!" The girl scrambled off the floor before catching up with her companion.

She had a total jerk for a best friend ...

She caught up with him and lightly shoved the boy on the arm.

Heh. But she wouldn't have Sasuke any other way.

The two continued on out of the three-story building. Naruto resumed her happy chattering, completely oblivious to the fact that Sasuke irritably crumpled a particular piece of paper in his pockets.

_Naruto,_

_You have the most beautiful smile I've ever seen. You're perfect for me! I hope we can be closer!_

_S.A_

That cheesy love message was proof enough that, obviously, S.A. stood for Secret Admirer; but to Sasuke, S.A. meant something completely different.

Search and Annihilate.

llllllllllllllllllll

For the next few days, Naruto kept getting these little love notes and trinkets in her locker. The gifts the girl received each day was steadily increasing in grandeur. Just yesterday, Naruto received the most ridiculous present from her secret admirer.

Really. Sasuke hardly believed a new pair of sneakers was necessary.

Who gave away sneakers?!

Sheesh!

"So what is it today? A brand new Playstation to keep the one you have company?" Sasuke bitterly mumbled as he watched his best friend try to open her locker which would finally reveal the love offering for the day.

"Oh shush you!" Naruto pouted while concentrating to get her locker door open. The girl fumbled with her combination lock due to embarrassment. This was her third go at unlocking her locker! What was up with that?! She couldn't possibly be frazzled by the small issue of a secret admirer, could she?

She released a grumble which was soon followed by a sigh.

Okay.

Fourth attempt.

She carefully aligned the small line of the lock knob to the marked zero before starting.

Ten - Seven - Twenty-thr-

"Hi Naruto!"

... Fifth attempt.

The blonde sighed and decided to put her endeavours of locker opening on hold. It would only serve to frustrate her if she pursued the task. She turned around and was surprised to see the beaming face of Tsubaki. After greeting the blonde child, Tsubaki fixed her stare to Sasuke whom was looking quite a bit irate. "Hi Sasuke!" The girl adoringly chirped.

"Hey Tsubaki." Naruto smiled back. She didn't want to be rude to the girl after all.

"What do you want?" ... Unlike some people.

"Sorry, Sasuke, but it's not you who I have business with today." Tsubaki apologetically eyed the Uchiha before reaching into her pocket. "Naruto, for you." Meticulously placed in the palm of the Ono girl's hand was a heart-shaped trinket. The kind of trinket that screamed 'I love you. Will you marry me?'.

... It made Naruto cringe.

"Uhh. Thanks?" Naruto graciously (well, as graciously as she could) accepted the gift.

"Who's it from?" Sasuke, in a very uncivilized manner, lowly growled out. For some strange reason, he was very (exceedingly) opposed to the idea of someone trying to gain his best friend's affection.

Tsubaki placed her arms behind her back and lightly swayed herself to and fro using her heels. "From Ibara." She said the name with a wink.

"Ibara?" Sasuke and Naruto asked at the same time. Although one was said in a more ... seething tone.

The brown-haired lass enthusiastically nodded her head. It would seem that she was oblivious to the way Sasuke was looking quite constipated at that moment.

"Tsubaki, who's Ib-" Naruto's question was left unfinished as the girl the blonde was addressing quickly turned around and skipped away.

. . .

. .

.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen.

As funny as it sounds, the girl just left without even an announcement of her departure.

" . . . That was"

"Weird."

"Yeah."

"You attract all the whackjobs, Elle."

A blue eye twitched. "Me?! You _do_ remember that Tsubaki is your fangirl, right?"

"Hn." Touché.

Naruto sighed and brought to little trinket to eye-level. The heart attached to a silver chain was laden with blue, green, and red gems. Judging from the nature of the chain the charm was attached to, the gift was meant to be fastened to bag zippers. The little blond child eyed the item with a little more scrutiny before noticing that the small object could be opened.

"What's with the face, Naruto?" Sasuke wondered once he saw the blonde's calculating expression.

She didn't bother to answer the question and continued to make motions of opening the trinket. With the flick of a finger and a snap, the heart-shaped accessory came undone and revealed a small note within it.

_Please meet me at the swings after lessons. – Ibara_

The girl stared dumbfounded at the note. Was this for real? This felt like a bad TV show just waiting to happen. Heh. So Ibara huh? Common sense would dictate that this Ibara was the S.A. the best friends had been wondering about.

"Hey Blondie!" Much to Sasuke's immense pleasure, Buzzy appeared out of nowhere and put an arm around Naruto's shoulder.

". . . Err. Hi." Naruto aimed a visibly conscious smile at their new addition.

"Baki told me you were here. How've you been? Maybe we can hang out after lessons with Baki and the others?" The wink sent to the blonde's way was enough to make Sasuke finally snap. The young Uchiha gruffly approached the two and forcibly removed the arm around Naruto's small shoulders.

"Hey!" The older boy shouted in protest, clearly not pleased with the way his arm was shoved aside.

"Sasuke! What's your deal?!" The raven-haired lad ignored the blonde's scolding. He, instead, chose to focus all his attention on the older boy just across from him. If looks could kill, Buzzy would be six feet underground by now. Sasuke received the desired reaction from the buzz-cut child. The older boy took a step back although retaliated with a glare (albeit weakly) that was meant for the blonde's best friend.

This marked the day Sasuke perfected the would-be famous Uchiha glare.

"Leave Naruto alone." Sasuke placed himself in between Naruto and the older child, and stood his ground. He wouldn't be pulling away Naruto like last time. This time he was going to intimidate the other until the latter left.

Buzzy attempted to out-dominate the younger boy but failed miserably not a few seconds later. And so with a "tsk" and a wave, the boy left the duo's presence; but not before saying a quick goodbye to the blonde.

"I'll see you around, Naruto."

". . . Yeah. See you." Naruto looked sympathetically at the retreating boy's back. She then proceeded to gaze in distaste at Sasuke. "What's with you? Why are you being so nasty?!"

Quite frankly, Sasuke didn't know the reason himself. He simply had the primal urge to scorn the previously present lad.

"Let's go. We'll be late." Like any normal person, when faced with matters that astounded oneself, dismissal of the issue occurred; because really, how could he answer Naruto when he himself didn't where the need to be possessive was coming from. Sasuke was nine for Pete's sake! Although he was considered to be a genius of sorts, matters such as these were still way over his spiky duckbutt head.

"Sasuke!"

"Drop it, Elle!"

The reaction Sasuke got from the girl was a funny cross between angry and dejected. It was an expression akin to a child who didn't know whether to cry or laugh at something. Had the circumstances been different, Sasuke would have found the look amusing. To avoid any further bashing that was sure to come from the blonde, Sasuke opted to make a speedy getaway to his violin class. Maybe a little time away from his blonde would cure him from that strange bubbling in his chest.

Weirdly enough, he would only feel the bubbles of doom whenever he saw or thought about Buzzy. Hn. He knew the kid was bad news!

And so for the next hour or so, Sasuke kept twitching in his seat, anxiously awaiting the prompt that would signal their dismissal. Apparently, his idea of being away from Naruto brought more worry than peace of mind.

llllllllllllllllllll

"Sorry, Sasuke. Naruto left already."

"Hn. That so..." Sasuke furrowed his brows at Sakura's words. It wasn't very Naruto-like of her to just up and go without Sasuke. One could expect that from the young Uchiha (because one had to admit that Sasuke was as selectively mean as they come) but not from Naruto. It just _wasn't_ her.

"Yup. Once coach said we were dismissed, she just ran out. It didn't look like there was an emergency though." The pink-haired cheerleader-in-training admitted while she consciously stretched out her skirt creases. But as everyone could predict, Sasuke took no heed of the girl's preening. Instead, the boy simply just nodded his acknowledgement for the information and left the small gym.

Sasuke wasn't called a genius for nothing. In a matter of seconds, he managed to conjure up reasons why Naruto didn't wait for him. After efficiently deliberating and cancelling out the implausible reasons, Sasuke turned tail and walked with purpose to the school exit. In Sherlock Holmes' famous words, 'Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable must be the truth.'

So lo and behold, there Naruto was ...

By the swings ...

With none other than little buzz cut boy himself.

. . .

. . .

. . .

Oh, Buzzy was toast.

Sasuke, whose endearing boyish features were red in anger, went from zero to sixty in a heartbeat. It's funny how the scenery looked pleasant and peaceful one second, then chaotic and loud in the next.

"Uchiha! What are you doing?!" Naruto screeched at her best friend whom had pounced on and was currently rolling around the ground with a certain older boy. Rolling around the dirty ground in an obvious spat with another child... one of the very rare times Sasuke would be seen, well, un-Uchiha like.

"Let go of me, crazy!" Buzzy struggled against Sasuke's hold. The younger of the two only responded with a growl, not letting up on his grip.

"Sasuke! Stop!" From out of nowhere, Tsubaki and her group were in the sidelines, all looking very worried for their friend's well being.

"Sasuke! If you don't stop right now, I swear, I won't hang out with you for a month!" Naruto's (not very threatening) threat immediately had Sasuke ceasing all motion. With one last glare Sasuke clicked his tongue at Buzz and proceeded to untangle himself from the older child. The young Uchiha dusted himself off the dirt in a very dignified fashion (as if he hadn't just rolled around the dirt like some barbarian) and placed himself beside a seething blonde.

Before Naruto could reprimand her dear best friend, Buzzy cut in with his own little rant. "What the heck is wrong with you?!" The older boy who was being helped up by his friends heatedly glared at the young Uchiha; the latter, in turn, returning the favour. Sasuke opened his mouth to say his rebuttal but Naruto interjected before another fight broke out. "Don't worry about Sasuke." Blue eyes squinted at the Uchiha's form. "I'll deal with him later." Naruto took a few steps forward to serve as a barrier between Sasuke and Buzzy.

"So before we were interrupted?" The blonde left the sentence open-ended, signalling for her companion to continue where he left off before the attack.

"Ah! You see..." Buzzy began to blush. This had Sasuke growling to himself.

"The letter in your locker..." The boy continued, and so realization dawned upon Naruto. "Oh, was that your letter?" She shyly shifted her eyes downward as she asked.

"Uhm. You see.. I just wanted to say that ..."

"No."

And, once again, Sasuke stepped in to interrupt what seemed to be a confession on Buzzcut's part.

"Sasuke." The warning was evident in the way Naruto whispered his name.

Sasuke paid no heed to his blond friend and simply continued with what he wanted to say. "Whatever you're about to ask, the answer is No. If you want to steal her away, then you'll have to go through me first. I'm her best friend. No one else's." It was cute really. How Sasuke decided the main issue lay within the fact that someone was trying to take his best friend away.

"Urgh! You're making this so much harder than it should be!" Buzz shouted in exasperation. "Just give me a few minutes to talk to her without you interrupting! I won't take her away from you if that's what you're worried about!"

"Hn. Lies. You've been giving her stuff for the past few weeks now. You're clearly trying something, _Ibara_." Sasuke glowered as he took a step closer to Naruto in very protective manner.

"Ibara?" The look on Buzz boy's face evidently screamed WTF(udge). From just behind the older boy, a small 'eep' was heard. "You think I'm Ibara?"

"Aren't you?" This time it was Naruto's turn to ask, her initial annoyance with Sasuke forgotten. "You were talking about the letter just now weren't you?" She furrowed her yellow brows in sheer confusion.

"That's what I've been trying to explain from the very start." The boy sighed. "My name is Gennai and I was only trying to help a friend out."

"What?" Sasuke and Naruto blurted out simultaneously.

"You see..."

"Gennai, that's enough." The pewter-haired girl from their group came forward and revealed herself. "I'll take it from here." Although the words were brave, her physical disposition screamed otherwise. She was blushing like mad and was shaking like a leaf. She crumpled the ends of her pale green dress to blow off some anxiety.

"You sure?" Gennai, in his concern, inquired his friend. The little girl nodded to respond to the question. In understanding Gennai stepped back and let the pewter-haired child take over.

Sasuke arched an eyebrow at the girl who refused to make eye contact. If it was one thing Sasuke hated, it was girl's who acted in this manner. Geez. It couldn't get more annoying than that!

"So? Spill it out." Uchiha Sasuke ordered as he was finally at the end of his rope. This earned him a light elbow hit to his rib by the blonde by his side. "Hey? What's the matter?" Naruto tried to ease the tension by using a gentle tone.

"Naruto..." The girl started. Finally! Some progress! Sasuke inwardly cheered.

"Hm?" Naruto cocked her head to side as a show of her unwavering attention to what the girl had to say.

With a great inhale of breath, the unnamed girl prepared herself. It was now or never.

She bowed to the blonde and, in one breath, proclaimed "Naruto, you're a very kind person. I like you very much and I'd like to be your girlfriend."

One second.

Two seconds.

Three ...

"EH?!" Naruto shrieked. Sasuke, regaining his class, only let his eyes bulge out slightly rather than screeching like a harpy.

"I'm Ibara, Naruto."

Blubbering. Only the sound of blubbering could be heard from the blonde. Then suddenly a snort of glee came but not from Naruto. Oh no. Far from it.

"Ahahaha! She thinks you're a he, Elle!" Sasuke, out of his character, bawled over. Naruto covered her face in her embarrassment. Did Sasuke really have to laugh THAT loud? "Shut up, S'uke! You thought so too!" Sasuke continued on with his bout of chuckling. "Yeah! When I was six! Guess you just really do look like a guy, Ellie!"

"What's going on?" Ibara worriedly asked as she was still kept in the dark.

"Look, kid. Naruto's a girl." Sasuke explained as he wiped mock tears from his face.

Silence.

It was pitiful how Ibara looked like someone had just stolen and eaten her last Pocky stick. Her pretty brown eyes seemed to shake and glisten with tears. "What?" The unsteady tone of her voice was just heartbreaking.

"You deaf? I said Naruto's a girl." Well, heartbreaking to everyone else at least; but not to Sasuke who seemed to be enjoying the whole scenario.

"EHHH?!" Tsubaki, Gennai , and the rest of their crew could have woken the dead with the absolute loudness of their holler.

"You're lying! You're just being mean, Sasuke!" Ibara, in a last attempt to fight fate, argued with the sadistic lad.

"No, he's not, Ibara." The blonde answered before Sasuke could riposte another insensitive remark. "I'm really sorry." Naruto lowered her head in apology. Frankly, there was nothing else she could do about the matter. Small hiccups escaped from Ibara's mouth signalling that said girl had let the tears fall and had started crying. Naruto looked up just in time to see the other lass run off past her friends in an effort to hide from the crowd.

"Ibara! Wait!" The blond-haired girl made moves to chase after the grieving child but was stopped by a certain Uchiha. "Let her be. She'll be fine."

"There you go again being such a cruel—"

"Let her cry it out, Naruto. She needs it. We'll talk to her when she's not as emotional."

"... Are you sure, Sasuke?" Naruto shot a worried glance to the area Ibara had disappeared to.

"Take it from me. I know what I'm talking about." Sasuke reassured her, obviously having much experience on these kinds of situations. The young Uchiha then noticed Tsubaki glance at Naruto and him warily, and proceeded to try and follow their upset friend with Gennai and others following suit.

"Hn. Come on, Elle. This is getting annoying."

Smack!

"Tch! What was that for?!" The raven-haired boy rubbed his left forearm in a soothing manner. Geez! Naruto wasn't a guy but she for sure hit like one!

"You're such a jerk! Makes me doubt about our friendship sometimes!" Naruto pouted while crossing her arms. She was obviously still bothered about Ibara but opted to let it go for now and listen to Sasuke's advice.

"How so?" An elegant onyx brow arched in confusion.

"Just... urgh! I don't know! You can be such a jerk sometimes! Even to me!" The blonde flailed her arms and decided to walk back home. She needed to blow off some steam. Maybe she could finally use Strike Raid to cancel out Sin Harvest. Yes. She still hadn't beaten the game.

Sasuke snorted and caught up to his best friend. "I'm only a jerk to other people. I'm a special kind of jerk with you." The smile sent her way actually lessened her overall distress somewhat and she smiled back.

"Thanks. I think?"

"Don't mention it."

"...You're still a jerk though. No way you can sugar-coat that."

"Can it, lady boy."

And with that, Sasuke slung an arm around Naruto's shoulders and decided to spend the rest of the remaining day with his (and only his) best friend.

...

"Do I really look that much of a guy?"


	11. Sunshine's Nurse

**N/A: **I should be studying for my Chemistry long test but what the heck.

Someone is sick in this chapter! Poor baby. Anywhooo. Despite the apparent sickness of this character, I would like to retain proper dialogue. In other words, I won't be changing the dialogue to make it seem that this character has a stuffy nose and whatnot. I'll just prompt it using narrative. I'd like to ask that you all just imagine how a person speaks when he or she has a cold. :3 I'd like to make the story somewhat formal and mostly because I find it rather hard to spell words to make it sounds all sick-like. :p

This chapter is for you OpenPervert-Chan. Hope you like it. :)

To Gaarafangirl, kyri, unknown reviewer, and DawnthePurpleBunny: Thank you so much for the support! It truthfully means a lot to me. Didn't think people would still read this since I was pretty inactive for a while. Anyways, I'll try not to disappoint with the coming chapters. :D

**SPOILER ALERT (kind of):** I just don't know how to feel about Sasuke anymore. He just ... he breaks my heart so much. TT_TT I just feel so bad for Naruto. My poor baby. Ugh. So much feels.

Song on repeat while I was writing this: Mess We've Made by AJ Rafael feat. Tori Kelly (Ugh. This song makes me so sad)

***DISCLAIMER APPLIES***

* * *

**BEFORE THE WORST**

**Sunshine's Nurse**

Ever heard of the expression 'I feel like a ray of sunshine'?

It's one of those expressions that don't really need much explaining. One doesn't really need to understand it. It's more of a matter of feeling it.

For example, a person just wakes up on the right side of the bed after a very restful sleep. Then the smell of freshly cooked bacon hits their nostrils. They hop out of bed, get in a few good stretches, and they're ready to start the day. Once at the dining area, they're mouths water at the sight of not just the glistening goodness of bacon but a whole array of breakfast awesomeness: sunny side up, French toast, pancakes, fresh fruits, whatever the heart desires. After a nourishing breakfast, they head on out and they're set to take on the world. As they walk along the street, each of the neighbours greet them a grand morning. That person steps into their school or work place, whichever floats their boat, and they just know that the day would be just amazing.

'I feel like a ray of sunshine.'

It doesn't get any more straightforward than that.

Now that the establishment of the saying is complete, it shouldn't be too hard to understand that everyone's favourite little blonde, by all means, did NOT feel like a ray of sunshine.

At all.

"Achoo!"

"Cover your mouth, knucklehead."

Sasuke winced in disgust at the snot dripping down Naruto's nose. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to visit Naruto today. She just looked so ... contagious.

"Blegh. I feel so gross." The ten-year-old blonde dabs a tissue against her nose. Poor girl had been running a high fever (amongst other things) for the past few of days now. Sasuke, being the bestest best friend ever, visited her every day after school. Despite her feeling like crap, she couldn't be any happier that the Uchiha boy wasn't grossed out with her. After deeming her nose mucous-free, she chucked the used tissue to the general area of the trash bin. In Sasuke's opinion, the bin looked more of biohazard than anything. It was packed with used tissues no doubt teeming with germs.

"You _look_ gross."

"Gee. Thanks, Sasuke." Blue eyes couldn't help but roll in slight aggravation. Guess she was wrong. Sasuke _was_ grossed out with her after all.

A knock on the door signalled the arrival of a man with esteemed literary expertise. "Hey kiddo! You feeling any better?" Jiraiya came in with a tray of food with the most incredible aroma. Sasuke hungrily eyed the bowl of goodness Jiraiya had prepared for both children. Too bad Naruto couldn't smell it.

"Not really, Uncle J. I'm having a real hard time breathing." Naruto scrunched her nose at the fact that she couldn't properly speak; particularly a few missing Ns in her sentences or sometimes having an abundance of Ds and Bs instead of Ts and Ps.

Contrary to what most believed, Naruto actually got sick on a fairly regular basis. Being a child, it was to be expected. Just the mere fact that she went to school with a whole population of children made her susceptible to ailments such as the common cold and the like. Another big surprise was the fact that Sasuke was actually the one who did not get sick as much. Throughout the years Naruto and Sasuke had known each other, the blonde had only seen Sasuke sick twice. It was uncanny. This phenomenon would probably explain why the Uchiha child was helping Jiraiya keep watch of her.

"That's good. Sickness helps build character, kiddo." It was faulty logic; even the often inept blonde thought so. Jiraiya placed the food onto the available table and started to set up the bed tray for the blonde's use. "If this doesn't make you feel better, kiddo, I don't know what will." The man proudly declared because he knew his ward would simply _love _him for what he was about to serve.

The little girl cocked her head to side in mild wonder. "Wait. Is that..?"

"It's ramen." The revelation came from Sasuke whose mouth was twitching with mild displeasure. It's not that he didn't like ramen. It was actually pretty good; but spending almost every waking hour with Naruto made him quite weary of the stuff. Suddenly, the mouth-watering aroma didn't seem as enticing now.

"Awesome! You're the best, Pops!" Her pretty blues twinkled despite their tired appearance. Jiraiya grinned at his goddaughter and placed one of the two steaming bowls on the fully made up bed tray. Not long after that, Naruto began to happily slurp up her meal.

"Sasuke, here's you bowl." The older gentlemen gestured to the bowl placed upon the available table. After saying his thanks, Sasuke began to eat his own bowl of ramen. He couldn't let it go to waste now could he? Plus, his Uncle Jiraiya went through the trouble of making him food. It would be very improper of him to refuse.

While the two kids went through their meal, Jiraiya's phone blared to life. He excused himself from the room and answered the phone.

"Man! Old man Jiraiya really knows how to make his ramen!" Naruto gleefully admitted. Sasuke couldn't help but nod in agreement. The stuff was definitely good and that was saying something considering his lack of appetite for that particular food choice.

The door to Naruto's room opened and Jiraiya peeked his head through the little opening. "Kiddo, I'm gonna have to leave you for a bit. That manly auntie of yours needs me down by Hokage. Sasuke, can you look after that little sick headache of mine while I'm away?"

Sasuke obediently nods his head. "Sure thing, Uncle Jiraiya." The man smiled at the little boy. The Uchiha brat was a good kid. Jiraiya was glad Naruto had someone like Sasuke in her life. "Thanks, champ. I owe you one." And with a thumbs up and a wink, Jiraiya left their company.

"So if you're supposed to look after me then I can boss you around!" Naruto said with a mouth full of ramen as she pumped a fist into the air. Not a second after that, she was hit with that annoying bout of coughing one usually had when sick. "Hn. That's what you get for even thinking you can boss me around, blockhead." Sasuke smirked in smug fashion all the while approaching his best friend. The boy patted the other child on the back in an attempt to stop the coughing spell she was suffering from. It took the girl a handful of seconds before she could stop hacking. Sasuke looked to his friend with much concern. He was pretty sure Naruto shouldn't be wheezing that way.

"Hold on, Elle. Let me go get you a glass of water." The ten-year-old Uchiha stood up and exited the room with purpose.

"Thanks, buddy." The sound of Naruto's voice made Sasuke cringe. His best friend sounded really sick. "No problem. Just lie down or whatever. Don't tire yourself out." And with those words of concern, Sasuke briefly left the room.

Naruto stared at her still somewhat full bowl of ramen and sighed. She didn't really feel like eating anymore. Being careful not to spill on the bed, the girl gently lifted the bowl from her tray and placed it on her side table. She folded her bed tray properly before placing it on the ground by her bedside. Now that her area was clear, she could finally start resting up as Sasuke had suggested because, truthfully, a nap sounded fantastic that moment.

The door opened and in came Sasuke with a glass of water. "Here." He gingerly handed Naruto the beverage. The lass took a few gulps before setting the glass down by her forgotten bowl of ramen. She then proceeded to snuggle in her warm sheets and burrow her head against her fluffy pillow. Once Sasuke was sure she was comfortable, he stood up to yet again exit the room.

"Where are you going?" Naruto slightly lifted her torso using her elbows.

"You need to sleep. I don't want to bother you. Plus, knowing you, you probably won't even be resting if I stay in the room." The young Uchiha continued to tread towards the door.

"Stay." The girl requested.

"No, Naruto. You need to-"

"You won't be a bother and I promise I'll rest. Just stay."

"Naruto..."

"Please stay."

With those two words, Naruto managed to get the young Uchiha to situate himself by her side. The girl had tiredly smiled at the boy and started to yawn. "Sasuke's such a good nurse." Naruto mumbled as the promise of sleep started to consume her.

The raven-haired boy grimaced at the analogy. As a punishment, Sasuke gently flicked Naruto on her forehead. "Be quiet and sleep, dummy." This caused Naruto to cutely giggle at her best friend. She offered the boy the best smile a sick girl could muster. "Mkay, S'uke."

Sasuke was taken aback by the expression. Even after all these years, Naruto's smiles could still make his brain turn into a pile of goo in the same intensity as the day he had met her. It was in these moments that Sasuke thought and believed Naruto to be the physical embodiment of a ray of sunshine. As the boy watched the girl lie down and close her eyes, he found himself thinking that maybe he didn't mind keeping an eye on Naruto the whole time she slept.

"S'uke, be a good nurse and sing me to sleep." Naruto, only managing to slightly open one eye, tauntingly peeked through her lashes.

And there were times Sasuke just wanted to smother Naruto to death. The boy hastily grabbed the nearest throw pillow and smacked Naruto on the head with it.

"Sleep." The tone of the order held a silent threat with it.

"Okay! Okay! Geez." The little chuckles erupting from the girl had slowly died down and at long last Naruto finally welcomed sleep.

When Sasuke was one hundred percent sure that the blonde was in a deep slumber, he rested his elbows onto the mattress and let his head slack against his palm. It was in that calm silence that the little hums of a song completed the sweet ambiance of the room.

_You are my sunshine_

_My only sunshine_

_You make me happy when skies are grey_

_You'll never know, dear, how much I love you_

_Please don't take my sunshine away_

And although Sasuke didn't chant the lyrics, he knew that the words of the song couldn't be any truer to him and he needn't sing it out loud to make the world know that it was so.

llllllllllllllllllll

"I feel like a ray of sunshine!" Naruto screamed out as she hopped out of her bed and danced around like the loon she was.

"Achoo!" Unfortunately, someone wasn't feeling like 'a ray of sunshine' that particular morning. "That's wonderful, Sunshine. Now could you please keep it down? You're giving me a headache." Sasuke drawled in a nasal voice.

"Poor Sasuke. Good thing it's a Saturday huh? I can nurse you back to health the whole day!" She gave the boy a bone-crushing hug.

"Not with you being so loud, blockhead!" Sasuke grunted at the embrace. "Can you let go please! I can't breathe!" Naruto snickered at Sasuke's muffled voice. The boy didn't just have a duckbutt hairstyle, he actually sounded like a duck now too!

Now although Naruto contracted sicknesses on a fairly regular basis, it was actually pretty true that Naruto healed very quickly. What would usually take a week or two for normal people to recover would only take a couple of days with the lass. Sasuke, on the other hand, although not very susceptible to illnesses, took forever to recover once he did manage to catch a bug.

Sasuke loudly groaned in exasperation. "This is what I get for being so concerned about you. Ugh. It's gonna be a long few weeks."

"Not when you have me taking care of you, buddy!"

And a louder, more pronounced groan from the boy made itself known.


	12. Memories of Tragic Bliss

**N/A: **Aaaand we're back! Hi guys! So just letting you all know that I've released Chapter 12 for Fast Car a few days back. Yeah! We're almost at the end, people! Let's get excited for that! Also, I'd like to inform everyone that it is officially my hell month in school. A couple midterms here and a bunch of research paper drafts there. So I may be a bit inactive for quite a bit of time. But I do promise to get back to everyone as soon as I can. In the meantime, I give you a chapter for BTW to keep you company. :D And if you haven't checked out Fast Car yet, you should go read it and let me know how you think! ^_^ (since it's my first released baby and all. Aheh.)

So this chapter just gives us a little history about Naruto's parents and an introduction of a new character.

**NOTE: **I don't know if this is common practice but my best friend and I have a whole bunch of nicknames we call each other. And I mean A WHOLE BUNCH (to the point that we lose track which is which sometimes). I based Naruto and Sasuke's friendship with my own. So if you guys find it confusing that Sasuke calls Naruto a whole bunch of nicknames, I apologize in advance. TT~TT

Also, in my country, godfathers and godmothers don't necessarily have to be husband and wife. You can have a godfather who is completely unrelated to your godmother. Sooo just a little heads up. :D

Self proofread... again. Pretty sure there are some mistakes in there. Sorry! TT~TT

***DISCLAIMER APPLIES***

* * *

**BEFORE THE WORST**

**Memories of Tragic Bliss**

Pretty blue eyes scanned the structure with great excitement. She marvelled at the quaint ambiance of the room, noting the wooden ceiling and floor. There was something about places made out of wood that made a person feel so refreshed, so at home. It was cool inside not just because of the lack of concrete but also because the ceiling fans were turned on to medium setting. The girl trailed a finger over one of the many wooden table tops and sighed as she sat down on a dining chair. This place would never lose its magic in her eyes... because it reminded her of a home she once had with her parents.

"Uncle J, will this really be mine when I get older?" The eleven-year-old girl asked with a hint of disbelief in her voice. She couldn't grasp the concept that a place of such importance and such splendour could ever be in her possession.

"Mhmm. Your parents had this place made from their hardwork before you were even born, kiddo. It was for them and it's for you." Jiraiya lovingly ruffled his goddaughter's spiky tresses. He couldn't help but solemnly look back into his memories as he spoke to the blonde. Kushina, in her life, had the biggest passion for cooking. Talk about the wonders of food and all the different kinds of delicacies and she would have this look of adoration. Her beautiful indigo eyes would sparkle like the most precious of all gems being bathed in the morning sun. It was with that passion and that striking beauty that she caught a certain blond, blue-eyed aspiring investigative journalist's interest in university.

Well... that and her 'strong' personality.

Jiraiya had once made the mistake of angering the woman. It, in all honesty, had the old man fearing for his life at that time.

"Mom would have loved to see how well it's doing now." The preteen wistfully stated. Jiraiya couldn't have agreed more. Kushina dreamed to translate her love for the art into a business and to be recognized for it. Minato, being the excellent husband that he was, did not just only support her but also aided her towards her goal. His wife's dream was also his dream; he used to say to Jiraiya. So the couple would take away a portion of their salaries to put into their savings; they did this for the longest time. Year in, year out both worked and worked in the hopes that maybe one day, they'd achieve their wishes; then one day, they finally had the means to start the project. They bought a worn-down structure in Konoha proper and reconstructed the place back to its previous glory (of course, adding their own little flare to the place). Slowly but surely, the soon-to-be restaurant was getting somewhere. Not long after that, Jiraiya was informed that Kushina was with child.

Jiraiya could not express in words just how ecstatic Minato and Kushina were about the news. Tsunade couldn't be any more supportive for the young couple.

In preparation for their coming child, Minato and Kushina had to sacrifice setting the speedy construction of their little business. They had a more important priority and it was the little boy in Kushina's womb. With the money they had saved, they had a baby room added to their quaint home which was situated just at the outskirts of the city proper.

The room was beautifully painted in soft apricot orange; the colour called for attention yet still pleasing to the eyes. The crib was crafted in wood and was placed beside the window which adorned silky white curtains. Anyone who looked to the child's bed would have to admit how comfortable it appeared with the way the small mattress and its surrounding pillows seemed to have the texture of the clouds. Minato and Kushina littered the baby room with all sorts of toys and knick knacks for their first-born child as any parent would in their excitement.

Once the room was fully furnished, both parents couldn't help but feel like the room was lacking something. Chalking it up to perfectionism, the couple had simply let the feeling go. It wasn't a week before their baby was due that Minato and Kushina were leisurely looking through a small baby store just within their neighbourhood. It was there that both parents were enraptured by a small plushy; the only one of its kind - a vermilion fox with shiny beady eyes and a cute button nose. Its fur was soft to the touch and it was the perfect kind of fluffy. Not too hairy that would make a person's nose itch, and not too soft that it would cause the toy to be fragile. Minato marvelled at the stuffed animal's white breast and its dipstick tail. Kushina loved the way its ears were perked up as if it was full of life.

Not half an hour later, Kurama was perfectly situated inside the baby's crib waiting for the child's arrival.

The room was finally perfect.

A few days later, on the tenth of October, Minato was awoken at three in the morning by his groaning wife. Kushina was rushed to the hospital by her frantic partner. It was comical to see how Minato was floundering about while Kushina simply stayed calm despite her contractions.

Tsunade arrived at the hospital an hour later after Kushina was admitted; Jiraiya, thirty minutes after the old blonde. Minato and Kushina were the type of parents who wanted to keep the child's gender a surprise; so both the older individuals couldn't contain their excitement to find out if Kushina's motherly intuition was spot on. For nine months, the red-headed mother would answer that "Naruto", named after the hero in Jiraiya's recent masterpiece, was a boy; and she seemed to be one hundred percent sure that she and her husband would have a son. The conviction was apparently contagious as everyone connected with the young soon-to-be parents believed that the couple was due for a boy in their near future.

Fourteen hours later, Kushina had successfully given birth.

... Imagine everyone's, especially Minato and Kushina's, surprise when Naruto turned out to be a girl.

"So I guess our little girl is stuck with a childhood full of trains and cars, Kushina." Jiraiya remembered Minato saying to his exhausted wife. The woman could only chuckle at the words as she lovingly held Naruto for the very first time. In the older gentleman's opinion, that single moment – when Kushina was cradling her daughter while Minato enveloped his two girls in his arms – was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen; and that picture would be forever ingrained in his mind.

Life for the couple was spent in cloud nine after Naruto was born. Not once had Jiraiya seen the parents unhappy. Two years later, Kushina had quit her job as a chef at a local hotel and The Hokage had made its debut. She led the staff with the finesse of a true leader and although the restaurant wasn't as popular as she had hoped, she still persevered and believed that one day hers, Minato's, and her staff's hard work would realize international prestige.

Jiraiya felt that the next year flew by too fast for his liking.

It was a perfect July summer evening. The young couple had decided to take their three-year-old daughter to the annual summer festival. The outdoor venue was full of all kinds of food which caused the summer air to waft with various tempting aromas. It was packed with booths, all having different games with which you could win and choose from a vast array of prizes. There were rides, there was music, there was dancing. It was overall a joyous occasion.

The family had done their rounds of the place and had managed to eat almost everything the festival had to offer and had ridden every single ride at least thrice. Minato had even managed to win his wife a gorgeous rose flower hair accessory from a balloon dart game. He also won Naruto an adorable black cat plushy to keep Kurama company. Naruto never went anywhere without Kurama with the logic that her beloved toy would feel lonesome all alone in their home. The cat toy, now in the little girl's possession, was the perfect friend for her Kurama on days when she wasn't allowed to bring the fox with her.

The last event for the evening was the fireworks display and it was the most awaited occasion. Respective families and groups picked out their own spots to watch and admire the display; out of the hundreds of people, Minato was able to find and save quite possibly the spot with the best visual of the fireworks. It was a secluded area no one knew of and it was elevated to a certain degree. Kushina sat her daughter down by her side with Minato following suit; and as the first of the series of pyrotechnics exploded in the night sky and its little wisps of light trickled back to earth, it felt as if the family watched the stars of heaven fall in their direction.

It was indeed a joyous occasion and Naruto would never, ever forget that day...

Unfortunately, it wasn't just because of that singular event of pure bliss that the blond child would never, ever forget that day.

The family treaded back to earth after that magical moment with the fireworks. Minato was carrying her baby girl since she was slowly being consumed by the call of sleep. She held on tightly to her new plush doll and her Kurama as she was embraced by her doting father. Kushina prattled to her love about anything and everything. Minato would respond with a fond chuckle and input his own little stories here and there as the young family made their way back home.

In times of bliss, the last thing on anyone's mind would be the prospect of any sort of tragedy to happen; because it was in moments like these, misfortune was such a far-fetched concept.

The visual of a shadow crossed Minato's periphery. Suddenly on high alert, he snapped his gaze towards the shadow's location. Kushina quirked her head to the side at her husband's abrupt guarded disposition. He gave their sleeping daughter to his wife and asked the red-head to quicken her pace. Kushina was confused but followed the blonds' instructions nonetheless. Minato stayed close behind the mother and child, ready if ever there really was a threat to their safety. Hopefully, his mind was just playing tricks on him and he simply imagined the movement in the darkness.

When deprived of one of the senses, a person naturally relied on the other four to acquire information. It was dark and Minato wanted to know for sure if they were being tailed. So he listened...

He counted the footsteps.

One. Two.

One. Two.

Those were coming from Kushina.

His feet were doing their own little sets of two of their own. His steps in time with his wife's.

One. Two.

One. Two.

He didn't hear anything out of the ordinary; just the sound of two pairs of footste-.

One. One.

Two. Two.

There! A pair of footsteps that came from neither of the parents. Minato hoped that the steps came from a person who was merely finding their way back to their respective home.

Not wanting to cause unnecessary panic, he wanted to confirm once and for all if the other set of feet were truly following him and his family or not. Minato pulled Kushina to stop, putting their fast walking pace to a sudden halt. Not a split second later...

One. Two. One –

And then silence.

That was all the proof the young father needed.

Minato pulled his wife and ran. This woke up the little girl in Kushina's arms. The little blonde was in a state of panic as soon as she realized that her mommy and daddy were running away from something. The girl asked what was going on yet no one would answer. Just imagine the outright confusion and terror a girl of three and just having come from state of sleep could have been experiencing at that time. In her panic, she dropped the black cat her father won for her. She screamed and cried for someone, anyone to get Kurama's and her new friend back.

Friend.

Friends were never meant to be left behind.

So Minato went back.

He quickly turned about face and ran for the stuffed animal on the ground a few metres away, while he simultaneously instructed his wife to keep on running.

Kushina didn't run.

Not soon after, Minato was able to acquire the stuffed animal, but the stunt he just pulled allowed their pursuers to close whatever distance the family made. He couldn't run anymore. Trying to run would only be a futile attempt by that point. Facing the three men, he pleadingly shouted for his wife to run; to put herself and their daughter out of harm's way.

Kushina refused.

Minato picked up a nearby branch to defend himself. He shouted yet again, this time in a more commanding tone, for Kushina to alert the authorities and reminded her of her duty to keep their daughter out of harm's way. He promised her he would get back home safe, promised his wife that he'd follow behind as soon as he beat the hell out of those criminals, promised his daughter that he'd safely bring the black cat to her room and that all five of them would play together come the morning.

He assured his Kushina and his Naruto that he loved them just in case.

Kushina was crying by then. She warned her husband that if he didn't follow soon, she'd cripple him. Minato gave a thumbs up as a response; the gesture becoming a signal for Kushina to start running.

She sprinted far away, carrying her daughter with her. Naruto screamed for her daddy and started squirming which caused Kushina to lose her bearing. The mother tripped and fell into thick shrubbery.

The thorny braches of the bushes managed to wound the woman's flawless skin in a multitude of ways but the pain of her scratches were drowned out by the sound of her child crying. She was able to shield Naruto from the thorns but she wasn't able to completely protect the blond child from being hurt. Three deep cuts trickling with blood on each of Naruto's chubby cheeks.

She immediately took out her handkerchief and wiped the blood from her child's face as well as the tears that were free-falling from bright blue eyes. Kushina cradled her child and, in her most tender voice, lulled her daughter into a calmer state. Soon, the blonde girl was simply hiccupping from the distress.

The sound of crunching leaves from not too far away caused Kushina's ears to perk. She peeked to get a glimpse of the figure that was approaching; hoping against all hope that it was her husband.

It wasn't Minato.

The despair she felt was almost enough to make her pass out. But no. She was stronger than that. Her indigo eyes shifted to her still upset daughter and softened. Kushina softly placed her hand on Naruto's wounded cheek and soothingly rubbed circles on the soft flesh with her thumb. She kissed her baby on the forehead after which she removed her turquoise jewel from her neck. As she secured the gem onto Naruto's form, she gave her little girl instructions about being very quiet and keeping still. Naruto was not leave that spot until mommy or daddy came for her.

Kushina put Kurama against Naruto's little torso for the child to hang onto until this traumatizing event was over and done with. Before Naruto could even ask what truly was going on, her mother had whispered to her an I love you before to woman conspicuously jumped out of the shrubs and made a break for it.

The man was hot on her heels in a heartbeat.

Like a good girl, Naruto kept silent and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Until her eyelids became heavy and she had fallen asleep right where her mother had left her.

The morning light came which announced the start of a new day.

The stuffing of a certain black cat were scattered on the moist soil.

Mommy and Daddy never came back.

"Uncle J? Hey!"

Jiraiya had had that glazed over expression for quite some time now. Heck, she had been calling him for the past minute and a half now and still no response.

"Hey, pop! Pop! Pops!"

The old gentleman sombrely recalled the day when 'Mugging caused death for young parents' hit the headlines. A local jogger had heard crying from one of the path shrubs and found a blond child littered with wounds inside the plant. Not soon after that, the police were alerted sightings of the child's parents. Jiraiya had cried so much after hearing the news. He would never forget that day; the day an innocent child was rendered without parents, the day he lost two good friends, and the day he acquired a daughter.

"Jiraiya!"

The man snapped out of his thoughts and was surprised to see face of his goddaughter literally just in front of his own.

"Gah! Personal space, kid!"He screamed as he shooed Naruto's face away.

"Well you weren't responding! How else would I have gotten your attention?" The blonde harrumphed as she crossed her arms in front of her chest.

Jiraiya looked at his now daughter and softened his gaze. Rather than The Hokage doing well, Minato and Kushina would have better loved to have seen their girl grow up to be a beautiful lady. The man snickered.

"You know, your parents thought they were going to have a boy for their first child."

Naruto dropped to the ground. "Shut up, old man!"

"Hn. Even your parents thought you were a boy, Elle."

Only one person had that voice. Naruto looked behind her and sure enough there Sasuke was beside Tsunade.

"Hey, brat. Your friend's here to pick you up." Tsunade said as she lovingly ruffled her goddaughter's blond spikes.

"Hey, Aunt Tsunade." The girl beamed at the blond busty woman that was her godmother before glaring at Sasuke.

"What took you so long, grumpy?!" Naruto placed her hands on her hips in a scolding manner.

"Hn. Come on, Sunny. Mom's waiting outside. It's not every day my dad allows us to have a tour of his company." The twelve-year-old company heir pulled the blonde towards the exit.

"Hey! Answer my question!"

"Hn."

"Sasukeeeee!"

"..."

" S'uke! Did you know that the restaurant is gonna be mine when I'm older!"

Tsunade could only smile at the dwindling sound of the two children (well, actually Naruto was the only one speaking) leaving the restaurant she was managing. Naruto... would be just fine. As long as she had friends like Sasuke in her life, she would do great.

"You know, I won't be surprised if those two end up together." She spoke her mind as she made moves go get herself a glass of water. Jiraiya made a face at the prospect. "I doubt it. I can't imagine those two falling for each other." The visual of an older Naruto managing The Hokage together with the Amaterasu branch leader made his stomach sick.

"Want to bet on it, Jiraiya? Five hundred and I say those two end up a couple a few years from now." The woman, not looking a day older than thirty, flicked one of her low ponytails back in place. She was notoriously known for her gambling habits. Every casino knew of the name Godaime Tsunade but not just because she frequented the casinos. It was also because she Tsunade always, ALWAYS lost in betting. It was with that mindset that Jiraiya easily took the bait.

"You're on, Tsunade. Sasuke and Naruto ain't ending up together. That's final." Jiraiya pointedly stared at the other's hazelnut eyes.

"You sure it's not just 'cause you're overprotective of our girl, old man?" Jiraiya felt a tick form at the woman's words. Of course he wasn't! It was just that if anyone, even if it were Sasuke, so much as even thought of getting near Naruto in 'that' way, he would bludgeon them.

No big.

"Don't you have a restaurant to open up, grandma?"

Tsunade chuckled as she flipped the closed sign to open. The first wave of customers entered the establishment, signalling another productive day for the store.

"Get up off your bum and help me work, you old coot."


End file.
